The bench of Justice A K Mathur and M L Naidu has asked the government last week to work out their due amounts within three months. It mentioned that most of the petitioners were now in their late 80s and Defence Ministry must provide them pension as soon as possible.
Pune-based S H Nargund (75) and others joined the Air Force in 1952, and retired from active duty in 1961. Further, they continued to be in 'reserve' force, till 1967. But after the retirement, Air Force took the stand that they were not entitled to pension, as they had not served for 15 years in active service, as required by pension rules.
The aggrieved then filed a petition in the Bombay High Court in 2009, which referred the issue to the Tribunal. Before the Tribunal, the central government's lawyer had pleaded that petition had been filed too late, saying even service records were not available now.
However, the Tribunal did not entertain this argument. "It is true that the petition is extremely belated but this petition has been admitted by the Bombay High Court and therefore, it will not be proper for us to dismiss it on account of laches (delay) alone....the pension is not a bounty payable as per the sweet will and pleasure of the government," it said.
Further, the Tribunal noted that at the time of appointment, the petitioners had been told that they would be working in active duty for a period of nine years plus six years in reserve.
Therefore, government could not say later that they had not been in active service for 15 years, and not eligible for pension, it said.
"That will amount to a breach of promise. While in reserve, they had been summoned for duty during the 1962 China war. The pension of all the petitioners may be worked out within a period of three months as most of the petitioners are aged 75 and above," the Tribunal added.