Sc Dismisses Mod Plea, Legal News, ET LegalWorld – Legal Firms

Chandigarh: In a significant order, the Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the decision of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) granting an increment to an armed forces personnel on pay scale on completion of one year of service on June 30 of a given year, rather than on July 1.

The matter pertains to the judgment of the Lucknow Bench of AFT, wherein the tribunal had interpreted the existing provisions of pay increments granted by the government on July 1 of each year after completion of a block of one year of service. The increment was refused by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to Honorary Flying Lieutenant Sarvesh Kumar because he had retired on June 30, 2014, on the grounds that though he had completed one year of service required for the benefit, it could not be granted to him since he was not in service on July 1, 2014, when the increment was to be released.

Relying upon a judgment of the Madras high court, wherein the HC, while dealing with a challenge to a similar judgment of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) concerning a similarly placed civilian central government employee, the AFT had held that such employees were to be released the increment notionally since they had completed the condition of serving one full year which made them eligible for the increment.

The ministry of defence (MoD) and the IAF authorities had challenged the AFT decision but the appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court earlier this week.