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Monday, December 20, 2010

Rank Pay Judgement and Aftermath

Dear Veterans,
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The point made by Veteran Bidyut Chatterjee is relevant. In Chennai we were discussing the implication of the present direction of the SC to the Govt. The Honourable Judges, no doubt, came down with some strong words of advice, also quoted Chanakya. But, did we appeal to the SC for this action? Our appeal was pertaining to the Rank Pay, which was already up held by the same court, with interest. No mention of the main case.
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The advice of constituting a separate Pay Commission for the Armed Forces (or an Independent Commission as some papers reported) was already taken care of by the Govt & the PM is on record having assured the same. The Govt pleader, did not bring out this fact to the knowledge of the Court, probably to gain time by an adjournment. When the Court reassembles on 18 Oct 2010, this will be the reply of the Govt. After that, will the SC direct the Govt to up hold the Rank Pay verdict or will it palm it off to the Separate Pay commission to decide?
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To my mind, the SC has become wise enough to restrict itself to the directive principle of NOT interfering in the administration of the Govt, after its experience of ordering the Govt to distribute the rotting food grains to the people who are below the Poverty Line.
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I agree with Veteran CK Sharma that such comments from the SC will have a great impact in the minds of Civil Population. They will be educated about the real cause of our struggle, with the Court confirming the genuiness of our demands. Earlier also, the Court had come down heavily on the Govt for treating us like beggars. Even in 1990 the same court observed that "it is pathetic to see so many Defence personnel are thronging on to the Courts of Justice, since they lacked any interanl mechanism to render speedy justice" (or words to the effect). Now the same Court is lamenting that the Govt is making us run from pillar to post, to seek redressal to our grievances.
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Even if Justice is delayed, the IESM remains the winner. Many of its tactics like Returning of Medals, agitations & March for Justice et al, have been taken note of by the SC, which observed that a disciplined lot of Veterans were forced to take recourse to such tactics due to the Govt's apathy.
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It is unfortunate, that instead of rendering a clear cut verdict (justice) on a already established case of Rank Pay, the Court decided to show one more set of Pillar & Post, for us to run about.
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Veteran Raman
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Dear Veterans,
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I am reproducing the mail I had sent on 15 Sep 2010. I was promptly cautioned about criticising the Judiciary. Based on this I sent another mail clarifying my observation. Please see the same in line below.
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Now is the time to act on this case through our counsel, before the Govt Pleader gets his way to misguide the honourable Court. So far the Govt has not disclosed any relevant facts to the Court & reasons for not honouring the Courts' earlier verdict.
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Expressing such views is not criticising the Judiciary.
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Veteran Raman
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Dear General,
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Your Apprehension about the case getting off the track is what I also felt in Sep 2010 itself. Kindly see the mails below. Unfortunately no one took the matter seriously. On the other hand I was cautioned not to criticise the Judiciary.
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Now also it is not too late. We must find ways & means to persuade our counsel to first request the Honourable Court itself, to decide on the prime issue of the Rank Pay anomaly, instead of constituting a Pay Commission for this purpose. It was not our plea.
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It is time now for all the ESM Organisations, including IESL, Air Force & Navy to join hands to put in a joint appeal, to the Court. Otherwise, the Govt will be keen to pass it on to a Pay Commission & put the case in a comatose stage for at least a decade.
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Veteran Raman
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Dear All,
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This is going to happen, over and over again, since any sane advice, predicting the probables in the near future, are being termed, to score a brownie point, as negative thinking, and after passage of some time, when the predictions start turning out to be true, the same very knowledgeable lot join the crowd, start putting their seal on such prophecies and spreading the message, as if this is what they have been saying all throughout.
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God save such groups from such over smarts.
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Regards.
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VPS
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Dear VPS,
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How right you are? You have hit the nail on the head. These bureaucrats would keep misguiding all and sundry and we would be on a ride for some more time to come. We have to be over cautious now, than any time before.
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Cheers
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Col LK Anand Retd

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