Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday directed his ministry to release the third instalment of arrears under the One Rank One Pension scheme to defence pensioners before Diwali.

The Centre had in December last year approved revision of pension of armed forces personnel under the One Rank One Pension scheme with retrospective effect from July 1, 2019, and the arrears were to be paid in four installments.

“Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh has directed the MoD to release the third installment of OROP payment for the Defence Pensioners drawing pension through SPARSH System, before Diwali,” Rajnath’s office wrote on X.

“The banks and other agencies have also been directed to do the same for all defence pensioners drawing pension through them,” it said.

The online pension disbursal system of the defence ministry is called SPARSH.

Armed forces personnel retired up to June 30, 2019 (excluding those retired prematurely) with effect from July 1, 2014, are covered under the revision.

As per estimates last year, over 25 lakh pensioners and family pensioners would benefit from the decision.

In February this year the Supreme Court had pulled up the defence ministry for defying it’s orders to clear the arrears of retired armed forces personnel under the OROP scheme.
The apex court asked the government to clear OROP arrears of pensioners in three equal installments by February 28, 2024.

A group of ex-servicemen had moved the apex court challenging the government’s decision to pay OROP dues in four installments.

The apex court had in March 2022 upheld the OROP scheme introduced by the Centre through its notification dated November 7, 2015. It had a provision for reviewing the pensions every five years.

The court had, however, said that a refixation exercise should be conducted from July 1, 2019, upon the expiry of five years on the pension payable to the defence personnel as stated in the OROP policy and the arrears paid within a period of three months.

On the defence ministry’s plea, the top court extended the three-month period by another three months in September 2022 and a further three months in January 2023, directing the Centre to make the payment by March 15.

OROP entails payment of the same amount of pension to armed forces personnel for the same rank and length of service, irrespective of the retirement date.