Article 14 enshrined in the Constitution of India ensure right to equality to the citizen. It has been documentarily proved that the discrimination in the name of command and control continued even after abotition of British Rules in various systems of Indian Administrative and Defence system. Pay fixation of Reemployed Exservicemen for Retired Officers and Retired Jawans/JCOs are completely different which has deprived the later due to non entitlement of Pay Fixation at Last Pay drawn.

The matter has been communicated to all the nodal agencuies i.e DESW, MoD and DOPT and further approved by all concerned except the Ministry of Finance. In this article we will dicuss about the Existing provisions and the proposal of the DOP&T to remove discrimination.

The extant instructions for pay fixation of re-employed pensioners have been laid down in this Department’s OM dated 31.07.1986. The existing instructions prescribed for different methodology of pay fixation in respect of various categories as under :-

SI No.	Types of Re- employed Persons	Existing instructions for their pay fixation on re- employment
1	Personnel Below Officer Ranks (PBORs) / Below Group ‘A’ Posts retired before 55 years of age and reemployed thereafter	Pay fixation at minimum of the scale of re-employed post similar to Direct Recruits. Their entire pension is ignored i.e. not taken into account in pay fixation. Permitted to draw pension separately.
2	Commissioned Officers / Group ‘A’ Officers retired before attaining 55 years of age and re- employed thereafter	Initial pay on re-employment at same stage as last pay drawn before retirement. If there is no such stage, pay at the stage next above that pay. Pension is to be deducted after ignoring Rs. 500/- .(Rs. 500/- has been revised to Rs. 15000/- vide OM dated 1.5.2017 in 7th CPC context). Permitted to draw pension separately.
3	Emergency Commissioned Officers (ECOs) / Short Service Commissioned Officers (SSCOs)	Advance increments on the minimum of the reappointed post, equal to the completed years of service in Armed Forces. The pay so arrived at shall not exceed the basic pay last drawn by the officer.
4	Ex-Combatant Clerks / Storemen	Increments on the minimum of the re-appointed post, equal to the completed years of service in Armed Forces. Thereafter deduction of pension after ignoring Rs. 15/-from pension subject to condition that combatant clerks/storemen in Armed Forces are re-employed as LDCs or Junior Clerks/Storemen in civil posts.(Rs. 15/-has not been amended till date) Or Pay fixation at minimum of the scale of re-employed post similar to Direct Recruits and their entire pension is ignored i.e. not taken into account in pay fixation.
5	Retrenched Employees	On their appointment to Government service they may be granted advance increments equal to the completed years of service rendered by them on a basic pay equal to or higher than the minimum of the scale attached to the civil post in which they are employed. The pay arrived at should not, however, exceed the basic pay drawn by them in the Armed Forces.
	Military reservist	reservist who continue to serve in the same civil post in which they were employed during reserve period, shall continue to draw the same rate of pay which they were drawing on the date of transfer to military pension establishment in addition to pension provided the pension is not more than Rs. 50/- per month. Rs. 50/- has not been amended till date.

6	Persons retired after 55 years of age and re-employed thereafter (all ranks)	Pay fixation on the basis of general principle of “Pay minus pension”. Pay for this purpose is last pay drawn before retirement.
	Persons coming on re- employment to Central Civil Services and Posts from State Governments, PSUs, Autonomous Bodies, Statutory Bodies etc. where the pay structure/ DA pattern is dissimilar to that of Central Government.	There are no existing provisions in our Orders. However, the Ministries / Departments are advised that the initial pay on re-employment shall be fixed at a stage in the level of the re-employed post so that the pay and Dearness Allowance as admissible in the Government will protect the pay and Dearness Allowance drawn at the time of the retirement. If there is no such stage in the re-employed post, the pay shall be fixed at the stage next below that pay.

Summary & Grounds of Proposal of the Exservicemen Associations and Draft Pay Fixation Order 2019 prepared by DOP&T

It has been observed that there is no uniformity in pay fixation method in respect of Commissioned Officers (Gp A Gazetted) and JCOs/OR ( Gp B and C). In the recent past, DOP&T has received numerous references from individuals, PBORs, Associations etc. demanding inter-alia for bringing uniformity in pay fixation methods by protecting their last pay drawn similar to that of Commissioned Officers. Revision of ignorable amount of pension of Rs. 15/- in respect of re-employed Ex-Combatant clerks is also unjustified.

It was therefore felt necessary to examine the existing formulae for pay fixation in respect of different category of officials/officers and to evolve a new formula which will uniformly protect their last pay drawn. A Draft in this regard, namely, Central Civil Services (Fixation of Pay of Reemployed Pensioners) Orders, 2019 was prepared by DOP&T in consultation with D/o Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare and D/o Ex-Servicemen Welfare. But the same has been rejected by Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure showing reason that If Last Pay drawn is allowed to PBOR, they will get undue benefit. Whereas the Commissioned Officers are continued to enjoy this undue benefit and ther is no restriction.

SI. No.	Types of Re-employed Persons	Proposed Uniform Pay Fixation Methodology as per Draft Order of DOPT
	Commissioned Officers, JCOs & OR of Armed Forces including Combatant Clerk s and equivalent Posts in Civil Organisation ( Gp A, B and C non Gazetted Posts) who retired and re-employed in Central Civil Services.	Initial pay on re-employment at same stage as last pay drawn before retirement. If there is no such stage, pay at the stage next above that pay. Pension is to be deducted after ignoring Rs.. 15000/- or 70% of pension whichever is lower. Permitted to draw pension separately.
	Short Service Commissioned Officers (SSCOs)	Advance increments on the minimum of the reappointed post, equal to the completed years of service in Armed Forces. The pay so arrived at shall not exceed the basic pay last drawn by the officer.