Armed Forces Tribunal: A Division Bench of Justice Rajendra Menon (Chairperson) and Lt. Gen Phillip Campose (Member) A, allowed the application.
In the instant case, the respondents has prayed for revision of pension in accordance with the last rank held by him before retirement as a Junior Warrant Officer vide Government circular dated 09-02-2001 which states that ten months continuous service in the last rank is not required for grant of pension in such rank.
Counsel for the petitioners, Manoj Kumar Gupta has relied on the judgment titled Pramod Kumar Singh v. Union of India (O.A. 1166 of 2017) and Ashok Kumar Tanwar v. Union of India (O.A. of 882 of 2016) which waived on 10 months pension. He further submitted that pension cannot be deprived to an individual to a rank for which he has already rendered service and earned pension in the rank of JWO and is entitled for the same.
Counsel for the respondents, Avdhesh Kumar Singh submitted that holding the last rank before retirement for calculating pension has been dispensed with and the present calculation to give pension for the lower rank is financially beneficial.
After hearing both sides, the Tribunal relied on the judgment titled P. Gopalakrishnan v. Union of India (O.A. No. of 62 of 2014) and held that after going through various circulars presented it was found that the calculation made for the respondents was detrimental. He further observed that pension is a statutory right and the respondents cannot be denied the entitlement of the same. It was directed to recalculate the pension based on the relied judgment.
In view of the above, the application was allowed.[JWO Meghnath Majumdar v. Union of India, 2020 SCC OnLine AFT 1601, decided on 05-08-2020]
*Arunima Bose, Editorial Assistant has put this story together