PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa dismissed a writ petition filed by 26 retired government servants seeking revision in their pension/family pension as per the Office Memorandum dated February 10, 1998.
Nuno Alvares Colaco and 25 others, all government servants of pre-1986 had filed a writ petition in 2015, contending that the Goa government had accepted the decision of the Central government to grant the revised pension/family pension to all its Pre-1986 and Post-1986 employees. The Office Memorandum dated November 9, 2011 was accepted by the State government, which was based on the earlier Office Memorandum dated February 10, 1998. Accordingly, the petitioners had submitted their applications for revised pension/family pension.
However, suddenly on May 5, 2014, the State government issued another Office Memorandum thereby revoking its earlier Office Memorandum dated September 3, 2013 granting revised pension/family pension.
The petitioner challenged the decision of the State government to revoke the Office Memorandum dated September 3, 2013 and thereby refusing revision of pension/family pension.
The Court stated that petitioners cannot claim that they were also covered under the Office Memorandum dated February 10, 1998 regarding revision of pension of Pre-1986 pensioners. The Court observed that the Goa government has explained its decision of withdrawing the Memorandum dated September 3, 2013 and it cannot be termed as arbitrary, discriminative or otherwise. The office notings show that there was a bonafide mistake in accepting the Office Memorandum of the Central government which only extended the time for filing application for revision of pension/family pension as provided under the Office Memorandum of February 10, 1998 which was never adopted or accepted by the Goa government.
