35(1) under BEPR,1995 - SUBMISSION OF RESPONDENT BANK IN COURT

[MOHAN P]

Dear Friends, 

Lot of discussions on the above Regulation under BEPR,1995 are going on under this forum as well as elsewhere.

1.It is a fact that Regulation 35(1)-with Appendix-1, is not meant for periodical updation of pension as and when wage revision takes place at industry level in banks once in five years.

2.Next argument came up  is on the amendment made in 2002 with changes in 'certain words ' may have entitlement for periodical updation of pension .

3.Karnataka High Court has already dismissed above plea in Writ Appeal No.903/2021 in WA 48905/2018 filed by Canara Bank Retired Officers Association V/s MOF.GOI.

Let us now go through the submission of Respondent Bank to the court on this point as furnished here under;

4. “That, with regard to the submission of the Petitioners that the Respondent Bank is not making payment to the Employees who have retired after 31.10.1987 in terms of Appendix-I of the PNB (Employees) Pension Regulations, 1995, the Respondent Bank crave leave of this Hon'ble Court to make the following submissions:

4.1 That the PNB (Employees) Pension Regulations, 1995 (which are pari-materia to other Nationalised Banks) were notified in the Official Gazette on 29.09.1995, made applicable to the Employees who retired on or after 01.01.1986, however, the Pension was paid to the Employees who retired on or after 01.01.1986 w.e.f. 01.11.1993.

4.2 Regulation 35 of PNB (Employees) Pension Regulations, 1995 provides for "amount of pension" to be paid to the Employees who have opted for pension in lieu of the Bank's Contribution to the Provident fund.

4.3 That Regulation 35 (1), inter alia, provides that Basic Pension and Additional Pension shall be updated as per the formulae given in Appendix I, wherever applicable. Appendix I, inter alia, provides for a formula for updating Basic Pension and Additional Pension in respect of the Employees who have retired between 01.01.1986 and 31.10.1987, inter alia, for the reason that the PNB (Employees) Pension Regulations, 1995, were notified on 29.09.1995

4.4. Further, it was amended in the year 2002 to include the formula for updating basic pension in respect of workmen who have retired on or after the 1st day of November, 1992 but before the 1st day of September, 1993 and in respect of officers who have retired on or after the 1st day of July, 1993 but before the 1st of May, 1994 i.e., to arrive at the average 10 months' pay, for the employees retired during the intervening period of two settlement period since in such cases the immediately preceding ten months' time before the date of retirement spanned over two Bipartite periods/ Joint Note periods.

4.5.This was mentioned to have clarity on the process to be followed to work out the pension for bankers who retired between 01.01.1986 (Date of commencement of Pension eligibility) and 31.10.1987. In each Bipartite settlement, a negotiated portion of Dearness Allowance is merged. For example, in the 4th Bipartite, the DA of 332 points in CPI was merged; in the 5th Bipartite, the DA of 600 points in CPI was merged. In the 6th Bipartite, the DA of 1148 CPI points was merged.

4.6.Since this peculiar situation would arise at the time of signing of a new Bipartite Settlement, that some employees will have their 10 months prior to retirement spanning over two Bipartite periods, in 1998, accordingly a request was made to the Ministry of Finance to amend the pension calculation method for the workmen who retired during the period from 1.11.1992 to before 1.9.1993, and in respect of officers who retired on or after 1.7.1993 but before 1.5.1994, as at that time the effective date of Bipartite Settlement (workmen) /Joint Notes (for officers) were different. This period was prior to the date on which Pension Regulations, 1995 became effective i.e. 29.09.1995.

4.7. Subsequently, there are no amendments to Regulation 35 (1) Appendix I. 

However, after each subsequent Bipartite, in order to facilitate the calculation of pension for employees whose 10-month period preceding retirement spanned over two Bipartite Settlement/ Joint Notes, Indian Banks Association (IBA) has been issuing letters to the Member Banks to work out their pension by merging the CPI points agreed in the relevant settlement, in which the employee retired  4.7 In the 11th Bipartite Settlement (clause 15 note 2) dated 11.11.2020 / 8th Joint Note (Clause 9 a) dated 11.11.2020, the process to be followed in such cases has been made a part of the Bipartite and Joint note.

4.8 That, thus it is stated that the employees who are covered by the Pension Regulations, 1995 including those who have retired on or after 01.01.1986 are being paid pension in accordance with the said statutory PNB Employees Pension Regulations, 1995.”

It is the court to decide on this issue.Let us wait.

[Ramakrishnan S]

This affidavit is to confuse the court by quoting unwanted issues. Let us not make our own judgement. Having waited for more than a decade, let is wait some more time , so that ,final judgement come from Sci, for or against pensioners. 

Any how, chv,and Mr. Prasad and co are capable of bringing some relief to pensioners, after sc verdict, rectifying the anomalies in Rbi formula.

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[Ramani Konnayar]

Dear Shri Mohan ji,

As already mentioned in my earlier mail, the formula for arriving at the average basic pay of those retirees whose last 10 months service falls under 2 successive BPSs is NOT the same as the one contained in Appendix-1. In other words, this process cannot be called updation.

The 5th BPS came into effect from 1/11/1987. Therefore, the last 10 months' of service of all those who retired between 1/1/1986 and 31/10/1987 fell under a single BPS viz., 

4th BPS. Perhaps, this was why the process of fixing their Basic Pension was called UPDATION and not just refixation of basic pay. This, the intention was not merely to align the DA rate of the above group with 5th BPS DA rate but

to improve the total pension too.

In this connection, I also request you to kindly go through the contents of my letter addressed to Shri.Prasad in the above connection and offer your comments thereon.

Thanks.

K N RAMANI 

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[MOHAN P]

Dear Shri Ramani Ji,

01.Merger of DR is the very concept behind the referred formula as you can see from illustrations without any load factor.Hence the process is  called not updation as we demand.This is only to take earlier BPS pensioners to next BPS level.( BP+Merged DR to arrive new BP)

02.Same process is happening after every BPS when retirees average pay of past 10 months  falls under two settlement periods.)

03.Reality is that, there may not be much improvement on such merger except a one time increase in pension.Reduced DR on new BP may give slight increase later based on  increase in CPI half yearly.

04.Also to be noted that on such merger of DR there cannot be further DR on merged portion of DR again.Hence naturally merged CPI  points may be deducted while arriving new DR rate for future payments.That is the correct process .

05.While comparing impact on merger of DR ,to current status, taking erstwhile BP and new BP with merged DR in subsequent settlement  may not be correct.

06.Certainly to improve or revise basic pension invariably apart from merger of certain portion of DR a fixed  percentage of load factor is inevitable.

07.We have clear example before us .RBI has added load factor of 10% to revise Basic pension of its pensioners  apart from merger of  certain portion DR based on CPI. 

08.For example: In our case,while taking 5th or subsequent  BPS /JN pensioners to 12 the BPS/JN level  naturally by merger of mere  DR (let it be current CPI 8088 level) amount of monthly increase may come around ₹1600 to ₹2100 only,as of now.

(Based of BP of ₹2600 under 5th BPS which runs on same scale/level  to ₹ 55390 under 12th BPS/JN).
Regards

Mohan.P

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