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 JUDGMENT Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, J This judgment has been divided into the following sections to facilitate analysis:

A. Factual Background ................................................................................... 3 B. Submissions of Counsel ......................................................................... 11 C. Analysis..................................................................................................... 24 C. 1 Concept and genesis of OROP .........................................................................26 C. 2. Plea of Discrimination ........................................................................................38 C.2.1 ACP-MACP ...........................................................................................................44 C.2.2 Financial Implications ......................................................................................46 C.2.3 Average to Maximum.........................................................................................48 C.2.4 Periodic revision every five years .................................................................49  PART A A. Factual Background 1 The petition under Article 32 of the Constitution addresses a challenge to the manner in which the “One Rank One Pension”1 policy for ex-servicemen of defence forces has been implemented by the first respondent2 through a letter dated 7 November 2015 issued to the Chiefs of three defence forces. The letter defines OROP as the payment of uniform pension to armed services personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of the date of retirement. OROP, in terms of the letter, aims to bridge the gap between the rate of pension of current and past pensioners at periodic intervals. The petitioners contend that in the course of implementation, the principle of OROP has been replaced by ‘one rank multiple pensions’ for persons with the same length of service. The petitioners contend that the initial definition of OROP was altered by the first respondent and, instead of an automatic revision of the rates of pension, the revision now would take place at periodic intervals. The petitioners submit that the deviation from the principle of automatic revision of rates of pension, where any future enhancement to the rates of pension are automatically passed on to the past pensioners, is arbitrary and unconstitutional under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

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11.4 …the Committee feels that the decision of the Government to bring our defence personnel on the pattern of the civilians with regard to their pay, pension, etc. (from Third Central Pay Commission onwards) is not a considered decision which has caused hardship to the defence personnel and has given birth to their demand for OROP. The Committee understands that before the Third Central Pay Commission, the defence personnel were getting their pay/ pension on the basis of a separate criteria unconnected with “Koshyari Committee Report”  PART A the criteria devised for the civilian work force. That criteria acknowledged and covered the concept of OROP which has been given up after the Third Central Pay Commission. 11.5 The Committee is not convinced with the hurdles projected by the Ministry of Defence (D/o Ex-Servicemen Welfare) in implementing of OROP for defence personnel. They have categorized the hurdles into administrative, legal and financial. The financial aspect has already been dealt with by the Committee. So far as the administrative angle is concerned, the Committee is given to understand that all the existing pensioners/ family pensioners are still drawing their pension/family pension based upon the lawfully determined pension/family pension. In that case, revision of their pension/family pension, prospectively, as a one time measure should not pose any administrative hurdle. So far as the legal aspect is concerned, the Committee is not convinced by the argument put forth against the implementation of OROP because the pension/family pension is based upon the service rendered by personnel while in service and comparison of services rendered during two sets of periods does not seem to be of much relevance. If seen from a strict angle, in each set of periods, the army officer performed the duties attached to his post and it may not be proper to infer that the officers who served at a later period performed more compared to the officers of earlier period. On the contrary, facts tilt towards treating past pensioners/family pensioners at par with the more recent ones.” 3 On 17 February 2014, the Finance Minister announced in his Budget Speech that the Union Government had in principle accepted OROP and it would be implemented prospectively from financial year 2014-15. The Finance Minister stated that an amount of Rs 500 crores has been transferred to the Defence Pension Account to meet the budgetary expense. On 26 February 2014, the Defence Minister chaired a meeting to discuss the implementation of OROP. The Defence Secretary, the Secretary to the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, the Controller General of Defence Accounts5, the three Vice Chiefs of Staff, and senior officers of the Service Headquarters along with the concerned Joint Secretaries attended the meeting. The minutes of the meeting refer to OROP as a uniform pension to be paid to armed forces personnel that are retiring in the “CGDA”  PART A same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of the date of retirement, where any future enhancements in the rates of pension are to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. The fourth respondent, CGDA, was directed to take necessary steps to give effect to the decision of implementing OROP in consultation with the three defence forces, and the first and second respondents. 4 By its letter dated 26 February 2014 the first respondent directed CGDA to work out the modalities of executing OROP. However, OROP was not implemented at the time. On 10 July 2014 in his Budget Speech for the year 2014-2015, the Finance Minister reaffirmed the Union Government’s commitment to implement OROP and a further sum of Rs 1000 crores was set apart to meet the requirement. In a written reply to a Member of Parliament on 2 December 2014, the Minister of State for Defence stated that OROP implies that a uniform pension is paid to retired servicemen having the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of the date of retirement, with any future enhancement in the rates being passed on to the past pensioners automatically. 5 The above sequence of events has been emphasised by the petitioners to highlight that OROP always entailed an automatic revision of the rates of pension to bridge the gap in the pension being received by past and current pensioners. However, according to the petitioners, a letter dated 7 November 2015 of the Joint Secretary of the first respondent to the Chiefs of three defence forces introduced a revised definition of OROP, where the revision between the past and current rates of pension was to take place at periodic intervals. Besides stating that OROP would take effect from 1 July 2014, the letter also highlighted the salient features of OROP:

“…11. The provisions of this circular shall be applicable to all Pre-01.07.2014 pensioners /family pensioners and their pension/family pension shall be stepped up with reference to rank, group and qualifying service in which they were pensioned.

Note:

a)…

b)…

c) A JCOs/ORs pensioner, who has retired with a particular rank and granted ACP-I will be eligible for revision of pension of a next higher rank; if ACP-II has been granted, he will be eligible for revision of pension of next higher rank of ACP-I;

and if ACP-III has been granted, he will be eligible for revision of pension of next higher rank of ACP-II w.e.f. 01.07.2014. For example- a Sepoy granted ACP-I will be eligible for revision of pension of Naik rank, Sepoy granted ACP-II will be eligible for revision of pension of Havildar rank and sepoy granted ACP-III will be eligible for revision of pension of Naib Subedar rank […]” Therefore, the example of two Sepoys drawing different pension amount is due to operation of MACP and is not due to operation of the OROP Scheme.