SC decision on OROP not correct, says Congress

New Delhi : After Supreme Court dismissed the petition on OROP on Wednesday, the Congress reacting to it said that the decision has been made overlooking the facts.

Addressing a press conference, Party General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “it’s incorrect,” and claimed that the UPA government had approved the OROP.

“Ex Servicemen & Armed Forces betrayed by our own Govt, which opposed right of persons holding the same rank, with the same length of service to get same pension, irrespective of the date of retirement,” he said.

Surjewala alleged that the BJP does politics on the issue and when time comes it goes back on its promise.

He asked, “why Prime Minister and Defence Minister deny and oppose #OROP in Supreme Court? Why are you refusing to implement the order dated 24th April, 2014 issued by UPA-Cong Govt giving OROP? Why did you reject ‘Koshyari Committee’ recommendations on #OROP before Supreme Court? Why did you tell the Supreme Court that Minutes of the Meeting dated Feb 26, 2014 chaired by Defence Minister, A.K. Antony didn’t constitute a decision of the Govt?”

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the One Rank-One Pension (OROP) scheme in the Armed forces is a policy decision, which does not suffer from any constitutional infirmity.

A bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said the policy decision of the Centre of OROP is not arbitrary. The bench said the central government has taken a policy decision and it lies within the ambit of policy making powers. The bench added that it is not for the court to go into the policy matters of the government.

The bench said: “We do not find any constitutional infirmity on the OROP principle and the notification dated November 7, 2015”.

The top court’s judgment came on a plea filed by the Ex-servicemen Association seeking implementation of OROP, as recommended by the Bhagat Singh Koshyari Committee with an automatic annual revision. The plea had challenged the current policy of periodic review once in five years.

–IANS