Wednesday 19 April 2017
Saturday 8 April 2017
FRAUD IN THE NAME OF ARMY GROUP INSURANCE FUND (AGIF)
Certain
firms/individuals are cheating serving/retired army personnel by
claiming to be Agents of AGIF or having tie up with AGIF. They insist
on serving/retired army personnel to become members of their Firm/Club
by paying membership money. The Firm then promises to facilitate the
processing of claim/loan and refund of their pending money from AGIF.
2.
AGIF has NOT employed Firm/Agent and has NO tie up with any one.
Therefore, beware of such fraudsters and not pay any amount to them.
AGIF does not charge any money for payment of claims. Particulars of
anyone claiming to be Agent of AGIF may please be confirmed from AGIF by
mail/Telephone at the following numbers :-
ARMY GROUP INSURANCE FUND
ADJUTANT GENERAL'S BRANCH
INTEGRATED HQ MOD (ARMY)
RAO TULA RAM MARG
PO. VASANT VIHAR
POST BAG NO.14
NEW DELHI-110057
TELEPHONE NUMBERS
MD AGIF 011-26143757
PDAS 011-26143759
Director (Coord) 011-26142369
Director (EMI) 011-26143852
Director (Claim) 011-26144837
Director (Fin) 011-26149813
Exchange AGIF 011-26142749
011-26147230
011-26151031
E-Mail - adagif@gmail.com
Monday 3 April 2017
RTI pleas on pension issues should be decided in 48 hrs: CIC
Right to information (RTI) applications seeking pension details
should be replied to within 48 hours as it pertains to the "life and
liberty" of the elderly, the Central Information Commission has held as
it pitched for early redressal of such grievances.
The Commission also directed that if an RTI application is a genuine grievance of a pensioner, steps should be initiated within 48 hours to redress it.
The directive of Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu will come to the aid of over 58 lakh central government pensioners.
Acharyulu in a recent order held that the information pertaining to pension of a person pertains to his/her life and liberty which is mandated to be replied to within 48 hours as per the RTI Act.
He said the moment an RTI application on pension issue is received, there should be a mechanism at the entry stage to discover and identify if it reflects a pension related grievance.
He said it should be brought to the notice of the responsible officer
by the CPIO on the same day and if it is a genuine case, the grievance
should be addressed. The result should be communicated within 48 hours,
followed by redressal within 30 days.
Acharyulu said considering the "living needs" of elderly pensioners, it
is important that records of their dues should be considered as "life
and liberty" related information under the RTI Act.
"The moment RTI application on pension issue is received, there should be a mechanism at the entry stage to discover and identify if it reflects a pension related
grievance/issue and should be acted upon immediately," Acharyulu said
in his directives to Employees' Provident Fund Office, Raipur.
He said all the cases relating to delay in fixation and payment of pension and
also arrears shall be dealt with urgently, considering them as request
for information concerning the life or liberty under section 7(1) of RTI Act.
"Any grievance regarding these issues should also be treated as 'right
to life' under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and the public
authorities shall do all the needful to address the issue within 48
hours," the Information Commissioner said.
Acharyulu said some authorities say that unless an imminent danger is there to life or liberty, this clause cannot be invoked.
"It is an extraneous extension of imagination without any basis. The
expression used in the Act is simply 'where the information sought for
concerns the life or liberty of a person', which should mean it is
enough if it concerns the life or liberty. That need not be in imminent
danger," he clarified in his order.
He was adjudicating the case of one Amrika Bai who had filed an RTI application seeking to know discrepancy in the payment of pension to her.
When she could not get proper response, she approached the Commission questioning non-payment of arrears of pension in a time-bound manner.
"The arrears involved is only an increase of 4 per cent on the basic pension of
Rs 1,986, which comes to Rs 80. Though it is a very small amount it
matters most for an old age appellant, who lost her husband and depends
upon sons or daughters," Acharyulu said.
Friday 31 March 2017
LETTER FROM DESW REGARDING STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF SC JUDGEMENT IN NAVAL VETERANS CASE
F.No.5(33)/2017/D(Pen/Legal)
Ministry of Defence
Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare
D (Pen/Legal)
Subject : Seeking Information under RTI Act, 2005-RTI Application of MBC Menon
The Chairmen National Federation of Ex-servicemen dated 27.02.2017
Please find enclosed an online RTI Request No.DEXSW/R/2017/50096 dated
27.02.2017
from MBC Menon, The Chairman National Federation of Ex-servicemen on
the subject regarding the implementation of Hon'ble Supreme Court
judgement in CA No.2147/2011 dated 27.10.2016 addressed to undersigned
CPIO. The same is transferred to you under section 6(3) of RTI Act 2005
for necessary action, under intimation of the undersigned.
Sd/ ....................23.3.2017
(A K Agarwal)
U.S.D(P/L-1)
Tel.No. 2301 5021
CPIO DPA(Navy) Sena Bhawan New Delhi 110011
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mod
ID No.5(33)/2017/D(Pen/Legal) dated 23.03.2017
Copy to
MBC Menon
The Chairman National Federation of Ex-servicemen
AC/149A, Shalimar Bagh
New Delhi, Pin 110088
Thursday 30 March 2017
IF DISABILITY PENSIONERS HAVE ANY PROBLEM REGARDING IT DEDUCTION MAY CONTACT ADV,NAVDEEP SINGH(Rtd Maj)
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
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