At least 45,000 officers have not been paid full salary for 20 years; government wonders what took them so long to ask.
As if stress wasn’t enough, forces are paying for an accounting error the Centre wants to ignore. At least 45,000 officers have not been paid full salary for 20 years; Govt wonders what took them so long to ask
NEW DELHI: The Centre is exerting itself to cover up a salary-disbursement blunder that resulted in 45,000 military officers being paid less than their entitlement. Some estimates indicate that the error, committed in 1986, may force the government to pay at least Rs650 crore in arrears.
AK Dhanapalan, a retired major, who won a legal battle in 2005 with the government over his dues, has galvanised scores of other veterans into seeking similar redress.
Already, 300 retired officers have filed six different cases in the Kerala high court to claim their dues.
But, according to sources, the government remains intransigent in its intention to defend its slip-up. Sources said a senior law official from Delhi may be sent to Kochi to fight the case.
Meanwhile, petitions filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act are piling up in Delhi as officers seek to emulate Dhanapalan’s successful action.
Dhanapalan had moved the Kerala high court to seek compensation based on the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission, which were notified with effect from January 1, 1986.
When the court ruled that the government had failed to pay Dhanapalan his full salary, the Centre appealed to a larger bench. The retired officer prevailed, but the Centre relented only when the Supreme Court dismissed its appeal. Dhanapalan was paid his arrears in line with the pay commission’s recommendation.
The panel had suggested a separate rank pay, in addition to the basic pay, for the ranks of captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and brigadier in the army.
The equivalent ranks in the navy and the air force were also entitled to the added emolument, which ranged from Rs200 to Rs1200 a month.
The controversy has its origins in the miscalculation by the Pune-based Comptroller of Defence Accounts (Officers). It deducted the rank pay from the basic pay, an error that affected other compensation elements such as dearness allowance, pension, and gratuity. This anomaly was carried forward to the Fifth Pay Commission, as a result of which scores of officers are being short-changed even today.
Some veterans have constituted the Retired Officers Forum to campaign for compensation. “We approached the government, wrote to the CDA,” said Lt Col Satwant Singh, a coordinator of the forum. “They said it was a single case involving a particular individual. Later, when another officer wrote to them, they claimed that all old documents had been destroyed.”
When an officer moved an application under the RTI Act, the defence ministry asked why no one had raised the issue for 20 years.
“It’s not a question of money,” said Singh. “What matters is the government’s attitude to the legitimate right of officers.”
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