Protesting armed forces veterans on Monday outrightly rejected the Narendra Modi government's one-member judicial commission setup to look into their concerns regarding the One Rank One Pension scheme. The government had on September 5 issued notification on the OROP which the protesting veterans at Jantar Mantar in the national capital termed as a "betrayal" by the government.
Justice (retired) L Narasimha Reddy, former Chief Justice of Patna High Court, will head the Judicial Committee which will look into the implementation of OROP scheme, it was officially announced on Monday. The Committee has been given a six-month deadline for submitting its recommendations.
Rejecting the proposal, the media head of United Front of Ex-Servicemen Movement Colonel Anil Kaul (retired) said, "We reject the notification as it is one of the seven anomalies pointed out by us to the government of India after issue of notification on OROP on September 5 and repeatedly there after. Our recommendations on an inescapable commission if at all should be multi-member has been discarded. Paragraph one of the commission notification says it will consider "Government references" only. Thus leaving the veterans high and dry. Also by doing so the door kept open with a mediator in the form of Union Minister General VK Singh has been shut on our face too."
The veterans are also contemplating legal options including knocking the doors of the Supreme Court. "The way forward is to approach the Supreme Court which would be taken proceduraly as per the advise of our counsel Ram Jethmalani very shortly. Notwithstanding the legal option the agitation will be intensified across the country," said Colonel Kaul.
One of the anomalies pointed by the veterans when the notification was issued was the judicial commission. After the government proposed one-member judicial committee, the veterans rejected it. They instead wanted a 5-member committee with three retired defence personnel, one serving and one from the judiciary. The timeframe should be one month.
The Terms of Reference for the Committee shall be to examine and make recommendations on references received from the Central government on various issues concerning the scheme announced by the government in November.
These include measures for the removal of anomalies that may arise in the implementation of the OROP as notified by the government on November 7. He will also look into the measures for the removal of anomalies that may arise out of inter-services issues of the three forces due to implementation of OROP besides implications on Service matters.
The Committee will also look into any other matter referred by the Central government on implementation of the OROP or related issues, a statement by the Defence Ministry said.
(With additional information from PTI)
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