The Supreme Court on Tuesday rapped the Centre over delay on the One Rank One Pension payments. The court granted a final opportunity to the Union government, setting a deadline of November 14, to take a decision on the issue.

An SC bench, headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, asked the ministry of defence to deposit costs worth Rs 5 lakh with the armed forces welfare fund. “If the government is not doing anything, I can’t do anything… this doesn’t give solace to these officers,” the court told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati.

    The case pertains to the non-payment of pensions payable to regular captain-rank officers on the implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP).

    The top court’s stern words came as Bhati told the bench that the ministry has not yet taken a decision on the matter. “We are working on it, but I am sorry no decision has taken place,” the ASG said. To this, the court said: “We are imposing a cost of Rs 10 lakh.”

    Bhati, however, requested three months’ time to resolve the issue following which, the SC asked the ministry to deposit Rs 5 lakh costs.

    The issue originated with the introduction of the OROP scheme in 2015, which aimed to equalise the pensions of current and past retirees. Due to lack of proper data for the ranks of regular captains and majors — the minimum rank for retirement with pensionable service is lieutenant colonel — anomalies arose in the pension tables.

    In response, the defence ministry appointed a ‘one man judicial committee’ (OMJC) in 2016, which recommended that this anomaly should be resolved. Despite this, no decision was made.

    Subsequently, the Kochi and Chandigarh benches of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) directed the ministry to resolve the anomaly based on the OMJC recommendations in a time-bound manner. Instead of implementing the judgment, the ministry challenged the AFT’s decision in the SC.

    Even after being granted multiple opportunities by the SC to resolve the anomaly, the ministry failed to take action leading to strong observations. In 2022, a bench expressed its displeasure with the defence ministry for filing multiple appeals against the disability pensions of differently abled soldiers in matters already settled by the high courts and the SC.