SC Says Making Submissions In Sealed Covers Is Against Transparency While Hearing One Rank One Pension Case

The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala on Monday said that they will not accept the submission made in a sealed cover as it is against transparency and remarked that they wish to end this practice. The court was hearing the case of One Rank One Pension where the court had asked in the previous hearing to get a roadmap of payment of arrears from the government. The same was being submitted in a sealed cover to which the court observed the aforementioned.

The CJI said that he is personally against the practice of making submissions in sealed covers and remarked that if the apex court follows the practice then the high courts follow the suit but there needs to be an end to it. The court said that this practice is against the judicial principles. When the court did not change its stance after the insistence of Attorney General R Venkatramani, he read the contents of the document in the court.

Previous Hearings:

In the previous hearing the apex court had asked the Attorney General to ensure that the Defence Ministry does not attempt to take laws into its own hands in relation to the payment of One Rank One Pension arrears. The court has asked the ministry of defence to submit their plan for the payment of arrears under the One Rank One Pension Scheme by the coming week.

Before this, The bench ordered the defence ministry to explain why the deadline for payment of arrears was extended when it was directed by the Supreme Court of India to make the payment this year in March.Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi appeared on behalf of the retired personnel and said how can the department have the right to modify the order that has been passed by the apex court. He also mentioned that 4 lakh pensioners have died during this period and cannot claim the pension.

Background:

To understand the background of the issue, the central government introduced One Rank One Pension scheme through a notification on November 7,2015. The apex court gave a judgement in the month of March 2022 where it upheld the OROP scheme of the centre and directed the arrears to be paid within 3 months. Later on, the date for the payment of arrears was changed repeatedly and was extended to September 2022 and then to January 2023. In the last hearing, the supreme court directed the central government to complete the payment of arrears by the mid of March 2023 but  a unilateral order was passed by the Ministry of Defence in January which extended the deadline further and issued that the payment will be made in four equal and quarterly installments.The CJI came down heavily on the defence ministry and remarked that the court will issue a contempt notice to the ministry of defence if they do not set their house in order.

In the light of the aforementioned the bench had earlier passed an order to seek a response from the secretary of the Ministry of Defence as to why a unilateral decision was passed when the Supreme Court had already passed orders.