To: All Affiliates, Office Bearers & Central Committee Members

Transcription

1 ALL INDIA CANARA BANK RETIREES FEDERATION (Regd.) (Affiliated to All India Bank Retirees Federation) A.K.Nayak Bhavan, 2 nd Floor, 14, Second Line Beach, Chennai Ref:46:2018 May 22, 2018 Chairman A.K.Bansal President V.K.M.Varma Vice President A.N.Balasubramanian Y.V.Subba Rao V.Srinivasan R.K.Dhawan General Secretary S.V.Srinivasan Joint Genl. Secretary K.R.Manohar Secretary K.Shanmugam M.Balasubramanian B.Venkat Rao M.K.Saha Anil Sood B.S.A.Rao P.Giridharan Organising Secretary R.Sudalaimuthu M.Venugopalan A.P.Raveendranath S.K.Madan A.Yella Rao K.R.Parasuraman Krishnappa P Salian S.Muthukrishnan U.Subba Rao Treasurer A.B.Kasturirangan Assistant Treasurer R.Ravishankar To: All Affiliates, Office Bearers & Central Committee Members Dear Sir/Madam, IMPLEMENTATION OF SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT DATED ON 50% OF PAY AS PENSION ( INDEX ISSUE) OUR STAND AND APPROACH ON CONNECTED ISSUES SUCH AS INTEREST, DIFFERENTIAL COMMUTATION AND COVERAGE OF POST PENSIONERS ETC. In the course of implementation of aforesaid Supreme Court judgement in the banks, connected issues surfaced on account of lack of clarity in the IBA guidelines on the same and few banks have also issued circulars. On noticing the same, we have promptly taken up the matters with appropriate authorities for remedial measures so as to ensure that the benefits flow to the pensioners concerned in consonance with the letter and spirit of the judgement. We are happy to inform you that owing to sustained liaising with our bank, we have been able to ensure that our concerns regarding the method of calculation of interest payable on pension arrears, payment of differential commutation & payment of arrears of pension along with 9% interest from the date of retirement till to those pensioners who retired during the period from to also have since been addressed. Copies of our representations on the captioned issues to the authorities concerned are furnished overleaf for your information. Incidentally, we wish to inform that after successful trial run of the package, the bank is contemplating to disburse the pension arrears to all pensioners retired between and before this month end. Also, we are thankful to our bank for having appreciated correctness of our interpretations on the aforesaid issues. With Warm Greetings, Encls: Yours Sincerely, (S.V.SRINIVASAN) GENERAL SECRETARY 1. Copy of our Letter No:28/2018 dated addressed to the Chairman of our Bank. 2. Copy of our Letter No:44/2018 dated addressed to the General Secretary, AIBRF, Indore. Phone (O): Mobile: aicbrf2010@gmail.com Website:

2 ALL INDIA CANARA BANK RETIREES FEDERATION (Regd.) (Affiliated to All India Bank Retirees Federation) A.K.Nayak Bhavan, 2 nd Floor, 14, Second Line Beach, Chennai Our Ref:28:2018 April 21, 2018 Chairman A.K.Bansal President V.K.M.Varma Vice President A.N.Balasubramanian Y.V.Subba Rao V.Srinivasan R.K.Dhawan General Secretary S.V.Srinivasan Joint Genl. Secretary K.R.Manohar Secretary K.Shanmugam M.Balasubramanian B.Venkat Rao M.K.Saha Anil Sood B.S.A.Rao P.Giridharan Organising Secretary R.Sudalaimuthu M.Venugopalan A.P.Raveendranath S.K.Madan A.Yella Rao K.R.Parasuraman Krishnappa P Salian S.Muthukrishnan U.Subba Rao Treasurer A.B.Kasturirangan Assistant Treasurer R.Ravishankar Sri T N Manoharan, Chairman, Canara Bank, Head Office, 112, Jayachama Rajendra Road, BENGALURU Dear Sir, Implementation of Supreme Court Judgement dated in respect of SLPs /2012 Canara Bank Vs Savithri Venugopal -- Arrears of Pensionary Benefits to Ex-employees who retired from to We earnestly request your good self to take into account following aspects on the pensionary benefits including commutation amount payable to the eligible pensioners, while implementing aforesaid Supreme Court Judgement: 1. Basic Pension has to be re-calculated in respect of all eligible pensioners who retired during the period between and by merging Dearness points of consumer price index. Difference in basic pension & additional pension and dearness relief thereon are payable from the date of retirement till ; 2. Interest on the amount payable every 9% calculating the same from the month in which the difference became payable till the date on which the difference is credited to pensioners Savings Bank Account; 3. Commutation is recognised as an integral part of pensionary benefits to be disbursed to retired employees; 4. The Hon ble Supreme Court of India pronounced judgment in Civil Appeal No of 2012, wherein the SC Bench has struck down explanation (c) added to Regulation 2(s) of Pension Regulations Once the anomaly in fixing the basic pension is removed, the pensioners become entitled to commute difference in commutation of pension on account of difference in their revised basic pension; 5. Since the revision of pension has to be made after 15 years, and the differential commutation value will have to be paid to the pensioners now along with interest at 9%, the commutation factor will be as applicable to pensioners on the date of retirement on which the commutation was payable. Commuted portion of pension is to be deducted from the pension payable only from the date the commuted value of pension is credited; Ph (O) LL: Mobile: aicbrf2010@gmail.com Website: 1

3 6. Incidentally, we would like to bring to your notice that IBA issued Circular No. CIR/HR&IR/SKK/ /4439 dated regarding implementation of Hon ble Supreme Court Judgment in favour of retired Specialist Officers in Civil Appeal No of 2017 in respect of Regulation 26 of Bank Employees Pension Regulations, While implementing the judgement, the treatment of commutation arising out of differential basic pension should also be on the lines outlined herein above; 7. We wish to state that around 5000 pensioners in our bank including Family Pensioners are anxiously awaiting for receipt of pension arrears after prolonged litigation for more than 17 years; 8. As an ultimate authority in whom the administration of the bank with equity and justice is vested, we look forward to your responding to our representation favourably, having due regard to the letter and spirit of the Supreme Court judgement dated ; 9. For your ready reference, we furnish in the annexure background information of the case on 50% of Pay as Pension litigated upto Supreme Court. Thanking you in anticipation, Yours Sincerely, (S.V.SRINIVASAN) GENERAL SECRETARY Encl: Annexure as above 2

4 Annexure Background information on prolonged litigation: Basic pension shall be 50% of average pay drawn by an employee during the last 10 months of his service in the bank. In respect of post retirees, consequent to Industry Level Settlement and Joint Note, the bank changed the definition of Pay for the purpose of pension payment on the basis of adding to the pay paid earlier to , dearness allowance thereon at Consumer Price Index 1616 instead of 1684 resulting in monthly reduction of pension payable and one time reduction of commutation amount receivable in contravention of Canara Bank (Employees ) Pension Regulations Large number Pensioners in our Bank aggrieved over the same joined together and filed Writ Petitions in Karnataka High Court (WP Nos:41471/2001, 2629/2002, 16866/2002 & 39379/2002). Such petitions were tagged to similar Writ Petition No: 15295/2001 and upon hearing both sides, the Hon ble Mr.Justice Ashok B Hinchigere delivered the judgement on as follows: Respondent bank shall pay the differential amount of Pension and commutation value of pension to petitioners on that basis within a period of 8 weeks, if not earlier and in the event of failure to make the payment as above, the bank shall be liable to pay 10% on the said amount till date of payment. The Management filed Writ Appeals Nos: /2011, / 2011(S- RES) and such appeals were connected to similar appeal (WA No:4269/2011(S- RES). Payment of differential commutation was also discussed by the Division Bench (Vide Para 9) in its judgement and the writ appeals were dismissed on by Hon ble Mr. Justice Vikramjit Sen, Chief Justice & Hon ble Mrs. Justice B.V.Nagarathna of Karnataka High Court. Thereafter, Special Leave Petitions (Nos: /2012) were filed in the Supreme Court. These SLPs were tagged to CA No.5525/2012 Bank of Baroda & Ors Vs G.Palani & Ors. After final hearing on , Hon ble Mr.Justice Arun Mishra and Hon ble Mr. Justice Amitava Roy pronounced judgement in favour of the Pensioners by setting aside the judgement of Delhi High Court and affirming the judgements of Karnataka & Madras High Courts. As such, the appeals filed by bank managements have been dismissed and the appeals preferred by Pensioners/Association have been allowed. Operative part of the Supreme Court judgement: Resultantly, let the amount which was due and payable be paid with 9% interest, be calculated and paid within four months from today. 3

5 ALL INDIA CANARA BANK RETIREES FEDERATION (Regd.) (Affiliated to All India Bank Retirees Federation) A.K.Nayak Bhavan, 2 nd Floor, 14, Second Line Beach, Chennai Our Ref:44:2018 May 14, 2018 Chairman A.K.Bansal President V.K.M.Varma Vice President A.N.Balasubramanian Y.V.Subba Rao V.Srinivasan R.K.Dhawan General Secretary S.V.Srinivasan Joint Genl. Secretary K.R.Manohar Secretary K.Shanmugam M.Balasubramanian B.Venkat Rao M.K.Saha Anil Sood B.S.A.Rao P.Giridharan Organising Secretary R.Sudalaimuthu M.Venugopalan A.P.Raveendranath S.K.Madan A.Yella Rao K.R.Parasuraman Krishnappa P Salian S.Muthukrishnan U.Subba Rao Treasurer A.B.Kasturirangan Assistant Treasurer R.Ravishankar Sri S.C.Jain, General Secretary, AIBRF, INDORE. Dear Sir, Sub: Removal of anomaly in computation of Pension -- Canara Bank Vs Savithri Venugopal and Ors SLP (C) Nos /2012 tagged to CA No.5525/2012 Bank of Baroda & Ors Vs G.K.Palani & others along with other connected appeals -- Implementation of Supreme Court Judgement dated We have come across a few banks administrative circulars, wherein the benefit of removal of anomaly has been restricted to the pensioners retired between and and not given to those pensioners who retired during the period from to In this regard, we bring to your notice that in terms of provisions of the Joint Note/Bipartite Settlement dated and respectively, 1684 points of CPI were merged with existing basic pay of officers and employees and revised basic pay was worked out accordingly. However for the purpose of Pension, it was worked out after merging 1616 points of CPI only as against 1684 points. These provisions were made effective from Thus Pay for Pension was less than the actual pay the employee and officer concerned was getting on or after Against this anomaly, affected pensioners in our bank in their quest for justice litigated in Karnataka and other High Courts. In the meantime, the said anomaly was removed as per Joint Note & Bipartite Settlement dated Vide IBA communication No.CIR/ PD/76/D/G2/ /557 Dt addressed to banks which are parties to the aforesaid Settlement and Joint Note as detailed hereunder: Pension already sanctioned and being paid to retirees of the period 1 st April 1998 to 31 st October 2002 and of the period 1 st November 2002 to 30 th April 2005 is to be revised with reference to the new definition of pay as referred to in Paragraph 1 above and pension so revised paid to them with effect from 1 st May On account of such revision of pension, no arrears of pension and/or difference in commuted value of pension is payable to the retirees of these periods. In this regard, it would be relevant for us to bring to your notice that the Hon ble Supreme Court in its order has clearly stated that no vested benefit flowing from Pension Regulations 1995 can be taken away and there cannot be any retrospective amendment to Pension Regulations Ph (O) LL: Mobile: aicbrf2010@gmail.com Website: 1

6 adversely affecting Pensioners. The Apex Court further held: 33. The only purpose of the addition of Explanation (c) to Regulation 2 (s), was to take away the actual computation of the pension on the basis of the salary, which was drawn in the preceding ten months. Thus, we have no hesitation to strike it down being arbitrary and repugnant to other provisions/regulations namely 2 (d), 38 (1) (2) and 35. The Explanation (c) to Regulation 2 (s) is hereby struck down, as it could not have been enacted retrospectively to take away accrued rights. Even otherwise also it is held to be arbitrary and irrational. More so, in view of the fact that only by way of a temporary measure, that discrimination was created and the Explanation was deleted with effect from Thus, we set aside the judgment rendered by the High Court of Delhi and affirm that of High Courts of Karnataka at Bangalore and the High Court of Madras. The appeals filed by the Banks are dismissed and the appeal filed by the Association is allowed. Resultantly, let the amount which was due and payable be paid with 9% interest, be calculated and paid within four months from today. Affected Pensioners of 7 th BPS/Joint Note filed Writ Petitions in Karnataka High Court during 2001/2002 and also in other High Courts. Pensioners retired during the next Settlement/Joint Note (Between and ) also suffered the same anomalous and discriminatory treatment of fixation of lower basic pension and also one time reduction in commutation value as that of pensioners retired between and In so far as the Apex Court having struck down Explanation (c) to Regulation 2 (s) of the Bank Employees Pension Regulations 1995, it has no legs to stand and consequently, pensioners retired during to are also entitled to differential pension arrears as per the letter and spirit of the Supreme Court judgement dated The stand taken by IBA on restricting the monetary benefit to those pensioners who retired between to is neither morally justifiable nor legally sustainable. Supreme Court having struck down the explanation to Regulation 2 (s) whereby an attempt was made to calculate pension based on Pre-revised salary, still sticking to same analogy to another group of pensioners is not only illogical but also may amount to not implementing the ratio and spirit of the judgement leading to contempt. This issue financially affects substantial number of pensioners in all banks and in order to protect the interests of elderly pensioners, AIBRF needs to take up the matter on priority basis expeditiously with the IBA, as we have only 30 days time for resolving this issue. With Greetings, Yours Sincerely, (S.V.SRINIVASAN) GENERAL SECRETARY 2