Date: 18th
June, 2023
To,
Sri
Narendra Modiji,
Hon'ble
Prime Minister of India,
The Prime
Minister's Office,
152, South
Block,
Raisina
Hill,
New Delhi -
110011
URGENT REQUEST
Respected
Sir,
Subject: 1. Illegal repudiation of
arrears due to me (and other resigning ex-employees); by L.I.C of India, my
ex-employer and the Government of India, after delayed Wage Revision (due on
1st August, 2007) but notified on 8th October, 2010.
2.
Non-payment of Statutory Retirement Benefits like Provident Fund and Gratuity
on an enhanced basis after the said Wage Revision.
3. No
option given to us for opting for Pension (which was given later to other
employees)
4. No
intimation was given to me and the other resigning ex-employees about
possibility of repudiation of arrears, etc. when we submitted our resignation
letters.
5. Urgent request to direct the Life Insurance
Corporation of India to settle all the dues of the resigning ex-employees,
since 1st August, 1997. The Wage Revision Arrears have been continuously and
illegally/unconstitutionally/arbitrarily repudiated for 26 years, without any
reason; as proved by the Corporation's answers to my RTI queries!
6. My husband has just had a major surgery for Colorectal Cancer and is
convalescing. His treatment will most probably be life-long or long-term. He
will need to go in for regular, expensive, scanning and other diagnostic tests.
I had to borrow huge amounts from relatives to supplement my inadequate funds.
Instead of constantly depending on others who have their own problems, I
request you to ensure that I get all my said dues, as above-mentioned with
Compound Interest from 1st August, 2007, when they were actually payable to me;
till date (16 years, in my case!). These funds will provide me with some relief
from availing loans.
7.
Costs of sending representations, correspondence, filing RTI Appeals, photocopying
expenses, commuting, mental and physical harassment, losses due to wastage of
productive man-hours spent on representations/appeals; should also be paid to
all of us. You may decide an appropriate amount and request L.I.C to pay the
same to all of us. Similarly, other resigning ex-employees must also get their
dues, as they may also be facing financial problems.
Reference: The Gazette Notification
dated 8th October, 2010; and the previous and subsequent Gazette Notifications.
I, the
undersigned, had resigned when I was an Assistant Administrative Officer, in
Pune Camp Branch Office No. 953 (Pune Divisional Office No.1), after 18.5 years
of service on 2nd July 2010. The Gazette notification for payment of arrears
due from 1st August 2007 was announced on 11th October, 2010. Legally, I was
entitled to the arrears of difference in my wages from 1st August 2007 to 2nd
July 2010 but it was denied on the basis of this Gazette and subsequent
Circular’s notification by the Corporation.
Similarly, the
Provident Fund and Gratuity being Statutory Retirement Benefits, their difference
will also have to be paid as per the revised, enhanced wages. All the
allowances, perks, etc. would also have to be calculated accordingly and the
difference would have to be paid to me and all the resigning ex-employees.
The Corporation
wrongly differentiates between the two classes of voluntarily resigning
employees as those who have completed 20 years of service and those who have
resigned before completing 20 years of service. The first class is entitled to
the Wage Revision Arrears’ Payments and the second class isn’t entitled to it,
despite putting in long, sincere and dedicated years of service! Since the wage
revisions were announced for all the employees of the Corporation, as a class,
the Corporation should not deny the benefits to the resigning ex-employees. The Supreme Court has also mentioned this
point in its judgement, stating further, that the delay in payment of Wage
Revision Arrears is the fault of the Corporation which announces the Charter
belatedly; each time that it is due!
I am maintaining a
blog named uberrimafideslicindia.blogspot.com
to highlight the Corporation's gross injustice and to narrate my experience of
filing R.T.I Appeals to fight for my constitutional rights to wages, as I was
on the salary rolls of the Corporation on the date from which the arrears were
payable. Several similarly placed, resigning ex-employees have contacted me to
narrate their similar plights.
All the scanned
documents pertaining to my RTI crusade against L.I.C's injustice, are available
on this blog, for your perusal. You could note how the Corporation has evaded
giving answers to a majority of my queries! You could also note how the CIC
hasn't imposed any penalty on the Corporation for not providing answers,
despite my request for the same and instead put the onus on me for obtaining
answers from each of the numerous offices of the Corporation! Each aggrieved
person who has filed an RTI appeal has received the same response from the CIC!
So it has been an exercise in futility! A total wastage of our precious time
and meagre resources!
The mighty,
resource-rich L.I.C of India gets away with illegal repudiation whereas we are
made to run from pillar to post to get justice, and even asked to approach
courts for justice. As you are well aware, litigation is a time-consuming and
expensive affair, one that none of us can really afford. L.I.C takes undue
advantage of this fact. So now our only hope is that your intervention will
provide us with much-needed relief and justice.
Interestingly, many
resigning ex-employees (Class I and Class 2) from the Government's four General
Insurance Companies, Subsidiaries of Life Insurance like L.I.C Mutual Funds and
L.I.C Housing Finance have also approached me to join my crusade against this
gross injustice of Wage Arrears' Repudiation.
Despite L.I.C of
India's large Reserve Fund and Assets amounting to several trillions of rupees,
it keeps on illegally and arbitrarily repudiating Wage Revision Arrears of the
resigning, ex-employees. It's absolutely pathetic that we have to borrow money
from others in times of exigencies, like the one I am currently facing; just
because the Corporation has no regard for either the Supreme Court or the laws
of the nation and has illegally repudiated our hard-earned dues; despite a
Supreme Court ruling in 2007 that the Clause 3 B ii of the Wage Revision
Charter is ultra vires! This case is also highlighted in my blog.
Kindly look into the matter urgently and
consider my request to direct the
Life Insurance Corporation of India to settle all the dues of the resigning
ex-employees, since 1st August, 1997. The Finance Ministry may also be given
the requisite instructions from your end to expedite the process.
With reference to point 6 in the
'Subject' as mentioned above, kindly expedite payment of my dues (Wage Revision
Arrears and Difference in Statutory Retirement Benefits like Provident Fund and
Gratuity, etc.) with Compound Interest from 1st August, 2007, when they were
actually payable to me; till date (16 years, in my case!). Costs of filing RTI
Appeals, photocopying bills, commuting, mental and physical harassment should
also be paid to me and all those of us who have filed RTI appeals.
I'd be highly obliged if you'd do the
needful and respond favorably at the earliest.
Kindly accept my
warm regards.
Thanking you,
Yours
respectfully,
Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan
Enclosures:
Hospital's Admission Letter and Discharge Card's photocopies.
P.S. L.I.C of India
still acts in utter "Contempt of Court" manner to repudiate the
arrears by incorporating the same wordings, under Clause 3, that were declared
as "ultra vires" by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in 2007, and the
Government of India (Finance Ministry) also ratifies the same!
Extract from the
latest notification of 2021.
[भाग
II—खण् ड 3(i)] भारत का राजपत्र : ऄसाधारण 45
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 15th April, 2021
G.S.R. 273(E).—In exercise of the powers
conferred by section 48 of the Life Insurance
Corporation Act, 1956 (31 of 1956), the
Central Government hereby makes the following rules
further to amend the Life Insurance
Corporation of India (Special Area Allowance) Rules, 1988,
namely:-
1. (1) These rules may be called the Life
Insurance Corporation of India (Special Area Allowance)
Amendment Rules, 2021.
(2) They shall be deemed to have come into
force on the 1st day of August, 2017.
(3) These rules shall be applicable to all
employees who were in the whole-time salaried service in
the permanent establishment of the
Corporation as on or after the 1st August, 2017:
Provided further that the employee whose resignation had been accepted or whose services had been terminated under rule 39 of Life Insurance Corporation of India (Staff) Rules, 1960 during the period from the 1st August, 2017 to the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette, shall not be eligible for the arrears on account of revision.
Interestingly,
every Wage Revision Charter states the following, in its Explanatory Notes:
"It is certified that no officer of the Life Insurance Corporation of India is likely to be affected adversely by the notification being given retrospective effect."
But
proceeds to illegally and arbitrarily deprive the resigning ex-employees of
their hard-earned, constitutional wages, for the periods when they were on the
Salary Rolls of the Corporation and in active service!
