New Delhi, September 12 : The Supreme Court has decided to look into the alleged discrimination between pensioners who retired from public sector banks between1987-97 and those who did so after 1998.
Perusing the PIL filed by an aggrieved employee of one such bank, E K Varghese, the Bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan on Thursday sought the response of the Finance Ministry and the All-India Bank Employees Association.
The PIL, filed through advocate N R Shonker, claims that those who retired before 1998 were denied the benefit of revision of pension. The petitioner urged the Court to declare that denying revision of pension benefits to pre-1998 pensioners while granting them to post-1998 retirees was arbitrary and illegal and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
Varghese has also alleged that there are considerable anomalies in the pension payment made to retired employees of public sector banks and those who retired from other government services.
His petition stated that when the Central or state governments extend an increased dearness allowance to their employees, the same is extended to their pensioners as well. However, in the banking sector, even though the DA is revised for working employees on a quarterly basis, it is revised only half-yearly for pensioners. This, he again alleged is arbitrary and violates the Constitution.
