New Delhi: “There cannot be secrecy in the court,” the Supreme Court observed on Monday, refusing to accept a sealed-cover note from the Centre on the disbursal of pension to ex-servicemen under the “One Rank One Pension (OROP)” scheme.
When Attorney General R.Venkatramani presented a sealed cover before the bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, he flatly refused to accept it, and said it had to be shared with the other side.
To this, Venkatramani said the note was “confidential”.
The Chief Justice of India then observed: “I am personally averse to sealed covers. What happens is, we see something, he does not see. And we decide the case without showing it to him. This is fundamentally contrary to the judicial process. There cannot be secrecy in the Court. The Court has to be transparent. Secrecy is understandable in a case diary… the accused is not entitled to it, or something which affects the source of information or affects somebody’s life. But this is payment of pension in pursuance of directions in our judgment. What can be the great secrecy in this?”
When the attorney general said there were some “issues of sensitivity”, Justice Chandrachud remarked: “When you claim privilege, we have to decide that claim.”
He added: “We need to put an end to this sealed cover procedure which is being followed in the Supreme Court because then the High Courts will also start following. And this is fundamentally contrary to the basic process of fair justice.”
Following these observations, Venkatramani read out the note which said the Budget outlay was not sufficient to meet the expenses.
Incidentally, the Defence Ministry has been criticised by the apex court in previous instances for not adhering to the timeline for disbursing OROP arrears.
The arrears are in the range of Rs 28,000 crore and the number of pensioners is about 25 lakh. Venkatramani note said the Ministry of Defence had taken up the matter with the Finance Ministry which suggested a staggered payment rather than disbursing the arrears at one go.
Representing the ex-servicemen, senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi then said the instalments were due back in March 2019.
Ahmadi said: “They have served the country in the best years of their life and why is that they are the last priority of the government… they are now saying they will pay in April 2024. It’s extremely unfair.”
The bench then issued a set of directions, including asking the Centre to pay in one go dues to family pensioners and gallantry award winners on or before 30 April, 2023.
Read the full order here.