The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Union of India, on a petition seeking to extend the benefits of constant attendant allowance for retiring employees with disabilities--whether they joined with existing disabilities or acquired disabilities while in service--and have high support needs.
A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh sought response from the Centre and Ministry of Personnel Public Grievances and Pensions and listed the matter for further hearing on March 12.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the All India Confederation of the Blind, through advocates Pankaj Sinha and Satyaarth Sinha.
The petitioner told the court that it has filed the petition in the public interest "under article 226 of the Constitution for a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to the respondents."
The petitioner asked the respondents to extend the benefits of the office memorandum dated February 3 issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and the office memorandum dated April 20, 2011, issued by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, vide which the Central Civil Services (CCS) (extraordinary pension) rules were amended to the persons belonging to the category death or disability due to natural causes not attributable to government service at par with the people belonging to various categories.
According to the petition, vide the office memorandum dated July 28, 2020, issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, considering the hardship being faced by the disabled government servants, covered under the provisions of CCS (EOP) Rules, the Central government had decided to dispense with the minimum service required for earning service element of disability pension, with effect from January 1, 2006.
The petitioner has urged the Delhi High Court to issue a direction to the respondents to amend the office memorandum dated December 7, 2009, issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, to extend the benefits of constant attendant allowance to retiring employees with disabilities whether they joined with existing disabilities or acquired disabilities while being in service and have high support needs (where an individual is completely dependent on someone else for day to day work) on the same footing.
The petitioner also sought to quash the office memorandum dated February 3, 2000, issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and the office memorandum dated April 20, 2011, issued by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
"The office memorandum dated April 20, 2011, issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, vide which the CCS (extraordinary pension) rules were amended, to the personnel who have joined the government service as a "Person with Disabilities" whether on own merit or in disability quota without any distinction," the petition said.
The petition said that the official memorandums dated February 3, 2020, and April 20, 2011, are in gross violation of Article 14 of the Indian constitution because they discriminate between people who joined government service as an employee with disabilities and people who have acquired disability while being in government service.
( With inputs from ANI )
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