New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to pay at least 50 per cent of the pay as pension to all the retired army personnel as recommended by the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) without any reference to cut-off dates fixing lesser pension for some categories.

A Bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur passed the order while dismissing a batch of over 50 appeals by the Centre challenging the orders of various high courts and armed forces tribunals, quashing the office memorandums (OMs) assessing the pension amount at less than 50 per cent for some categories of pensioners.

The Centre argued that payment of pension at 50 per cent or more would place an additional burden of Rs 1,500 crore on the government. But the Bench said the pensioners were entitled to the CPC recommendations of 50 per cent to all pensioners which had been accepted by the government.

The Bench observed that retired armed personnel could not be denied their dues just because some officials, who did not even have the authority to issue the OMs, had misinterpreted the recommendations.

“We have already affirmed the orders of the High Courts and AFTs in a couple of cases earlier and there was no need for the Centre to come to this court, the Bench said and directed the authorities to implement the order in four months extending the benefit to all those who were entitled to pension.