In yet another significant judgement,the Supreme Court ruled that differential treatment in fixing pension is unfair.
In a ruling that will benefit thousand of employees,a bench of Justices D.K.Jain and J.S.Khehar quashed an August
9,1989 Tamilnadu Government order to the extent that it extended to the employees who on or after June 1,1988 a
lower componenent of “dearness pay”as against those who have retired prior toJune 1,1988,holding that the GO is
violative of Articles 14(equality before law) and 16 (equality in matters of public employment) of the constitution.

The bench said that there was no valid justification for the government “to have classified pensioners similarly situated
as the appelants who retired after 1-6-1988 from those retired prior thereto”
The judgement furthur stated that the purpose of adding the component of dearness pay to wages for calculating
pension is to offset the effect of inflation.Therefore,the classification inthe impunged GO placing employees who
retired after 1-6-1988 at a disadvantage,vis-a-vis th eemployees who retired prior thereto,by allowing them a lower
component of dearness pay ,is clearly arbitrary and discriminatory.

(Source The Hindu)