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This judgment shall dispose of eight writ petitions bearing numbers CWP No. 3312 of 2007, CWP No.4821 of 2007, CWP No. 8640 of 2007, CWP No.10165 of 2007, CWP No. 8939 of 2007, CWP No.17863 of 2007, CWP No.14814 of 2007 and CWP No.11227 of 2008 as they involve identical facts and common questions of law.

The short question involved in these writ petitions is as to whether the petitioners, who are Ex-Armed forces personnel, are entitled to restoration of their commuted value of pension after fifteen years of the retirement or thirteen years after adding weightage of two years purchase value of commuted pension, in terms of the directions given in the judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in "Common Cause" As Registered Society & Others v. Union of India & Others, 1987(1) Service Law Reporter 206 (Annexure P-1).

Pension of the Army personnel is governed by provisions of Pension Regulation for the Army, 1961 (amended in 1981) (for short Regulation of 1961) and the commutation of pension for the Army personnel is further described in the provisions of paras 341-344 of Regulation of 1961 (extracted at Annexure P-4 alongwith the table). It is further stated that the petitioner being Commissioned Officer was also entitled to commute a lump sum payment of portion not exceeding 43% (for officers) of his full pension as described in table appended under para 341- 344 and the amount of value of commutation of pension was determined in accordance with the table which is further considered for the number of years called as "purchase years" in the table accordingly.

That prior to the year 1986 there were no provisions or rules for the restoration of full pension after the expiry of a particular period of weightage or purchase years of commuted pension for the Central Government employees including the Armed Forces, and a provision existed for converting a portion of pension into a lump sum amount and thereafter receiving only the balance amount for the rest of the life. It is not disputed that in case of the Central Government employees, the total amount of pension which could/can be commuted is upto one-third while in the case of the Defence Services upto 43% (in case of officers) and upto 45% in case of other ranks. It is only after the intervention of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Common Cause's case (supra) that the Central Government introduced the scheme for restoration of commuted portion of the pension.

The contention on behalf of the petitioner that the commuted portion of the pension of the petitioner/Armed Forces personnel is liable to be restored back after 13 years instead of 15 years by granting an additional weightage of two years, as directed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in its judgement "Common Cause" As Registered Society (supra) is wholly misplaced and thus deserves to be rejected.

It is not disputed that prior to the filing of the public interest litigation in Common Cause's case (supra) in the year 1983, the benefit of restoration of the commuted portion of the pension was not available to the pensioners of the Central Government. It appears that during the pendency of the aforesaid PIL, in view of various State Governments having taken the decision/changed the rules to restore full pension to their pensioners, who commuted a part of their pension after a lapse of fifteen years, the Central Government also agreed to restore commuted portion of the pension in regard to all civilian employees at the age of seventeen years or after fifteen years, whichever is later and agreed to make this effective from April 1986. This decision of the Government was conveyed to the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the pending Common Cause's case (supra) vide letter dated 20.03.1986. The contents of this letter are reproduced in para 3 of the judgment (Annexure P-1) in Common Cause's (supra), For ready reference relevant Clause VI is reproduced as under:-