Saturday, 31 December 2016
Monday, 26 December 2016
AFT allows petition seeking NFU for defence officers at par with Group ‘A’ services
In a verdict, which meets the long-standing demand of thousands of
defence services officers, the principal bench of the Armed Forces
Tribunal (AFT) in New Delhi has allowed a petition demanding
Non-Functional Upgradation (NFU) for defence officers on the pattern of
civil services officers of Group ‘A’ services. The bench comprising the
officiating chairperson of the AFT, Justic BP Katakey and Lt Gen Sanjiv
Langer today delivered the judgement on the petition which had been
reserved some weeks back. Col Mukul Dev of the Army’s Judge Advocate
General’s (JAG) Branch was the principal petitioner in the case which
also has around 500 serving Army officers as co-petitioners.Speaking to The Indian Express, Col Rajiv Manglik (retd) advocate for the petitioners said, “NFU been allowed as given to defence officers on the pattern of civilian officers as given by the 6th Pay Commission and it will be applicable for all three services-Army, Navy and the Air Force. It has also been stated if NFU is implemented for civilians in 7th Pay Commission it will be given to armed forces officers also. The advocate also said that the bench has allowed arrears for NFU for a period not exceeding three years from the date of the judgement. “The AFT has also denied the leave to appeal in the Supreme Court to the respondents ie. the Union of India,” said Col Manglik.
The petitioner had contended that the morale of officers of the armed forces has been lowered by the government by non-grant of the NFU and thus lowering the established status of the armed forces officers since independence. He had also argued that the stagnation in the armed forces is more acute than the civil services and that the denial is in clear violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution “as the equals since independence have been made unequals”.
It was also argued that the purpose of grant of NFU is not to equate the monetary benefits or earnings enjoyed by a particular service, but it is granted with the aim to remove the stagnation due to the acute shortage of vacancies and grant parity of promotional avenues within the IAS with stipulated lead of two years to the IAS.
The petitioner had said that the parity established since independence and upheld by the pay commissions in succession between the armed forces and the All India Services/ Group ‘A’ services and IPS in particular has been disturbed and the petitioner has been deprived of the benefits extended to his counter parts in parity in the civil services.
It had been contended that the armed forces officers cadre meets all the attributes attached to the Group ‘A’ organised service. The petition says that the NFU has been denied on the pretext that Military Service Pay (MSP) has been given to armed forces officers. Citing this as a “gross mis-concept” the petition said that the grant of NFU is to alleviate the acute stagnation in service, whereas the MSP and other allowances is due to the postings at various difficult terrain and living conditions.
It was also pointed out that there are a number of Group ‘A’ services, which do not meet all the criteria for the group, yet they have been awarded NFU. The services mentioned are Indian Legal Service and Indian Trade Service, Indian Statistical service, Indian Economic service and Central Information service.
What is NFU?
Non Functional Upgrade (NFU) entitles an IAS officer and other Group ‘A’ services officers of the civil services to get the pay scale of the highest promoted officer of their batch even if he or she is not promoted to the same rank. This higher grade is given two years after the batchmate achieves the promotion. The aim of giving NFU is to alleviate the stagnation in the service due to non-promotion. Due to the steep pyramid of promotion in armed forces hierarchy, a large number of officers do not make it to the next selection rank. However, NFU has not been made applicable to armed forces. The Delhi High Court in its recent judgement has held that NFU is also applicable to officers of the central paramilitary forces.
© The Indian Express Online Media Pvt Ltd
Saturday, 17 December 2016
ILLEGAL DEDUCTION OF INCOME TAX BY SBI
Law Office
of NAVDEEP SINGH
Advocate, Punjab &
Haryana High Court
Office-cum-Residence :
# 1063, Sec 2, Panchkula – 134112, Haryana
Phones : 099888-LEGAL,
093161-32817 Email : navdeepsingh.india@...
Your reference
:
Our
reference :
To:
Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD)
State Bank of India, Mumbai
01 September 2016
ILLEGAL DEDUCTION OF
INCOME TAX ON DISABILITY PENSION BY THE STATE BANKOF INDIA IN CONTRAVENTION OF
DIRECTIONS OF THE GOVT
1. Shocking
instances have come to light wherein your bank has indulged in deduction of
Income Tax at source in case of Disability Pensioners. On further inquiry, it
has been informed that the action is based upon some ‘advice’ rendered by a
Chartered Accountant that income tax exemption is only available to those
pensioners who have been invalided out before completion of their service for
normal pension, that is, those released earlier than 20 years in case of
Commissioned Officers and 15 years in case of ranks other than Commissioned
Officers, and that the said exemption is not available on the service element
of those who have been released/ retired/discharged with a pension after
serving more than 20/15 years of service as above.
2. Firstly,
your attention is invited to Instruction No 2/2001 issued by the Central Board
of Direct Taxes in this regard which amply explains the issue (Appx A).
Your attention is also invited to Paragraph 88.3 of the Pension Payment
Instructions issued to all your banks by the Government (Appx B) which
leaves no scope of doubt regarding exemption of income tax from the entire
disability pension, including service element. Moreover, the interpretation of
your bank in this regard is absolutely incorrect, absurd and militates against
the rules and norms promulgated by the Government as above. It may be recalled
that Income Tax exemption on complete disability pension is available to
defence personnel since the 1920s.
3. On
discussion, it emerges that the confusion has been created due to the
terminology of ‘Service Element’ which is hereby clarified for your benefit in
the following lines. Disabled personnel who are granted disability benefits at
the time of release from service are known as Disability Pensioners. The
said Disability Pension consists of two elements- service element and
disability element. Both elements taken together are known as Disability
Pension. There is no minimum qualifying service required for the grant of
Service Element with effect from 01 January 1973. The calculation of service
element however is different in cases of those personnel released from service
before completion of pensionable service limits vis-a-vis those who are
released on completing pensionable service limits. In case of the latter, the
service element is granted at a rate equal to Service Pension. The fact that
the pension granted for service in both cases is known as Service Element
becomes clear from a bare perusal of Regulation 183 of the Pension Regulations,
1961, which contains two clauses, that is, 183(1)(a) for those who are released
with sufficient service to earn a pension, and 183(1)(b) for those who are
released before completing sufficient service to qualify for normal service
pension. The said Regulation is enclosed as Appx C. Please note
from the Regulation that in both cases the service part of the pension is known
as Service Element. Even the normal service pension rates reflected under
Regulation 183(1)(a)(i) are categorized as ‘Service Element’.
4. The
fact that the service part of pension, whether a person is released prior to
completion of service limits or after completion of service limits (20/15
years), is known as ‘Service Element’ also becomes clear from a perusal of the
recent Circular No 554 (Appx D) issued by the Principal Controller of
Defence Accounts (Pensions) to all banks, including yours. Paragraphs 1(i) and
(ii) and then 1(iv) & 1(v) as well as Paragraph 6 of the same clearly
stipulate that in case of disability pensioners, the amount of service part of
the pension is known as ‘Service Element’ irrespective of the fact whether a
person has lesser or more than 20/15 years of service. In simple words, the
service element of pension in cases of those disabled personnel who have
completed pensionable limits is equal to normal service pension, but being
disability pensioners, it is nomenclatured as ‘Service Element’.
5. Even
otherwise, it would be important to point out that disabled personnel released
prior to completion of pensionable terms as well as those who are released on
completion of terms or at own request are all treated at par as far as
disability pension is concerned. In fact, all those who are in low medical
category at the time of release are to be treated as ‘invalided’ as per
rules (Also Appx C) as has also been held as per interpretation of
teh pre-existing rules by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court in CW 2967/1989 Mahavir
Singh Narwal Vs Union of India decided on 05 May 2004 as affirmed by
the Hon’ble Supreme Court in SLP 24171/2004 on 04 January 2008 and also in the
recent decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Civ Appeal 11208//2011 Union
of India Vs Angad Singh Titaria decided on 24 Feb 2015.
6. In
view of the above, you are requested to inform all your branches to cease and
desist from flouting guidelines of the Central Board of Direct Taxes in this
regard and direct them to honour income tax exemption on both service as well
as disability elements of disability pensioners as was being done till now. It
may be appreciated that the opinion of your Chartered Accountant cannot
override existing law and rules that have been followed since times immemorial.
7. You
are requested to issue directions to refund the illegally deducted amount to
all affected disabled pensioners within a period of 7 days from the receipt of
this letter.
Thanking You
Sd/-
Navdeep Singh
Advocate, High Court
EXEMPTION OF INCOME TAX FOR DISABLED VETERANS
Instruction
No 2/ 2001
F.No. 200/51/99-ITA.I
Govt of
India Ministry of Finance
Deptt of
Revenue
Central
Board of Direct Taxes
New Delhi, the 2ndJuly, 2001
To: All Chief Commissioners of
Income-Tax
All Directors General of Income-Tax
Subject: Exemption from Income
Tax to disability pension, i.e., “disability element” and “service element” of a disabled officer of the
Indian Armed Forces –
Instructions regarding
Sir,
References have
been received in the Board regarding exemption from Income Tax to disability pension, i.e.,
“disability element” and “service element” of a disabled
officer of the Indian Armed Forces.2.It
appears that field formations in certain cases are not uniformly allowing
disability pension in spite of Board’s Instruction No 136 dated 14thJanuary 1970 (F No 34/3/68-II(AI) ).3.The matter has been re-examined in the Board and
it has been decided to reiterate that
the entire disability pension, i.e, disability element and service element of a
disabled officer of the Indian Armed Forces continues to be exempt from
Income Tax.4.This may be brought to the
notice of all officers working under you.
Yours
faithfully
Sd/-
(B L Sahu)
OSD (ITA-I)
Friday, 16 December 2016
Thursday, 15 December 2016
Wednesday, 14 December 2016
OROP protest: 4 veterans stay atop water tower in Delhi for 10 hrs
Four retired non-commissioned officers today threatened to jump off a
water tower near old Delhi railway station over the issue of One Rank
One Pension (OROP), several hours before they came down from the
structure on assurance from defence ministry officials, police said.
Four members of ‘Sabka Sainik Sangharsh Samiti’ climbed the water tower around 8 AM and threatened to jump off it, but with police intervention, they were pacified and eight-ten people who were accompanying them were taken to the office of Ministry of Defence to meet the officers and put forth their demands, said a senior police officer.
Those who had climbed the water tower have been identified as Gurcharan Singh, Kabal Singh, Satpal Singh and Kartar Singh and they had come from Punjab, said the officer.
They had climbed the water tank around 8 AM and even threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the tank, the officer added. Later a meeting was facilitated between the members of the body and the ministry officials by the police and the four men got down from the water tower around 6 PM, police said.
“They thanked us for facilitating the meeting and left for their hometown after the delegation that had gone to meet ministry officials apprised them about the meeting and assured them that they had got a patient hearing from the concerned officials,” the officer said.
http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/orop-water-tower-delhi/84091/
Four members of ‘Sabka Sainik Sangharsh Samiti’ climbed the water tower around 8 AM and threatened to jump off it, but with police intervention, they were pacified and eight-ten people who were accompanying them were taken to the office of Ministry of Defence to meet the officers and put forth their demands, said a senior police officer.
Those who had climbed the water tower have been identified as Gurcharan Singh, Kabal Singh, Satpal Singh and Kartar Singh and they had come from Punjab, said the officer.
They had climbed the water tank around 8 AM and even threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the tank, the officer added. Later a meeting was facilitated between the members of the body and the ministry officials by the police and the four men got down from the water tower around 6 PM, police said.
“They thanked us for facilitating the meeting and left for their hometown after the delegation that had gone to meet ministry officials apprised them about the meeting and assured them that they had got a patient hearing from the concerned officials,” the officer said.
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