Source: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com

RTI Foundation of India

Information in respect of ex-employees of LIC who were denied salary arrears under wage revision Rule-2010 etc. was sought - CIC: Collating & compiling of information on all India basis would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority 30 Apr, 2015 

ORDER 1. The appellant, Shri Sunny Chhabra, submitted RTI application dated 12.10.2013 Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), LIC of India, New Delhi seeking information in respect of ex-employees of LIC of India who have been denied salary arrears under wage revision Rule-2010, among all those employees, how many employees were in the court against the order of denial and how many ex-employees have been reimbursed their claim after appeal in any court or by any other way. 2. The CPIO vide letter dated 21.10.2013 informed the appellant that no ex-employee of Northern Zonal Office had been denied salary arrears under Wage Revision 2010. The information relating to employees of LIC of India working in all India (under all the 2048 branches, 113 Divisions and other 7 Zonal Offices) was not available. Therefore, collecting and collating this information from all the CPIOs would divert the resources of the public authority and hence could not be provided as allowed u/s 7(9) of the RTI Act. Dissatisfied with the reply of the CPIO, the appellant preferred an appeal on 17.11.2013 before the FAA. The FAA vide his order dated 28.11.2013 concurred with the reply of the CPIO. 3. Thereafter the appellant filed second appeal before the Commission. 4. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant did not attend the hearing inspite of a written notice having been sent to him. The respondents stated that as per instructions for implementation of the LIC of India Development Officers (Revision of Terms and Conditions of Service) Amendment Rules, 2010 issued by LIC of India, Central Office, Mumbai dated 11.10.2010, the employees whose resignation had been accepted on or before the date of notification irrespective of whether they are relieved or not or whose services had been terminated under LIC of India during the period between 1.8.2007 and 8.10.2010 (both days inclusive) shall not be eligible for the arrears on account of this revision. They added that they had provided information about the Northern Zonal Office and collecting and collating information from 17 Divisions of Northern Zone, 113 Divisions all over the country will result in disproportionate diversion of resources, particularly when each division had its independent CPIO. 5. Having considered the submissions of the parties and on perusing the relevant documents on file, the Commission holds that information pertaining to LIC of India, Northern Zonal Office had been provided to the appellant. Collating and compiling of information pertaining to employees of LIC of India on all India basis would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority and attract the provisions of Section 7(9) of the RTI Act. The appellant did not attend the hearing to point-out any deficiencies in the information provided by the respondents. The appeal is disposed of.   (Manjula Prasher) Information Commissioner Citation: Shri Sunny Chhabra v. LIC of India in Appeal: No. CIC/MP/A/2014/000433

Read more at: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/information-respect-ex-employees-lic-who-were-deni#.XUPrEG1R21s

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Dear long-suffering, resigning ex-employees,

I felt a sense of deja vu on reading this judgment. It was similar to the one that I got to my RTI second appeal.

If we send RTI applications to each and every office of LIC, we will all become old and reach our graves, before we can elicit any information from the recalcitrant LIC management.

And this is just about the information! ☺Payment of arrears, etc. will probably remain a pipe-dream.

Get ready to take this battle into our next lives, that is if we are reborn as human-beings!

Till then, of course, we will fight tooth and nail, till our last breaths.

COME WHAT MAY! NEVER SAY DIE! NEVER GIVE UP! 

ZINDAGI KE SAATH BHI, ZINDAGI KE BAAD BHI! 

                                                                                                                              Priya

Loans to IL&FS: IndusInd Bank acted on assurance from SBI, LIC

Source:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/loans-to-ilfs-indusind-bank-acted-on-assurance-from-sbi-lic/articleshow/69749547.cms

Loans to IL&FS: IndusInd Bank acted on assurance from SBI, LIC

The private lender had disclosed loans of Rs 3,000 crore to IL&FS and its group companies.

By 

Sachin Dave, Saloni Shukla ET Bureau|

Jun 12, 2019, 08.08 AM IST

Mumbai: Two key investors in Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services — Life Insurance Corporation and State Bank of India — had asked IndusInd Bank NSE -1.01 % to advance a loan to the group, going out of their way to provide assurances to the lender, just months before the default crisis hit the group, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter. 

SBI NSE -1.18 % and LIC had requested IndusInd for a loan to IL&FS Group with the assurance that the money would be returned after an upcoming Rs 4,500-crore rights issue, the people said. 

Following the assurances, IndusInd Bank lent about Rs 2,000 crore to the IL&FS Group in June 2018, most of which became a non-performing asset after the company went into default just two months later. 

“Several meetings between IndusInd Bank and the stakeholders were held in June last year, just two months before IL&FS went bust.” 

“The bank executives were under the impression that everything was on track, especially when the promoters were trying to keep the company afloat,” one person told ET. 

According to another person, the bank executives mentioned the meetings in their statement to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office. 

The senior executives accused in the case claim that the assurances by SBI and LIC had led them to believe that everything was on track and that they must continue with the daily operations normally. 

Emails sent to SBI and LIC did not elicit any response. 

“The bank’s exposure to the holding company of the infrastructure group referred to, per terms of sanction, carried some mandatory contractual prepayments from their originally planned rights issue/liquidity support via certain shareholders,” an IndusInd Bank spokesperson said. 

The private lender had disclosed loans of Rs 3,000 crore to IL&FS and its group companies. It made a 70 per cent provisioning on the loans to the holding company and created a 25 per cent provision cover on its exposure to the group’s special purpose vehicles. 

It wrote off Rs 1,000 crore of loan exposure to the group. 

Many senior executives who were part of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) are being investigated for their role in the alleged financial fraud. 

The SFIO has accused about 30 individuals and companies, including senior executives, independent directors and auditors of IFIN in its chargesheet. 

The SFIO is looking to widen the scope of its probe to other group companies. 

ET was the first to report on June 5 that the SFIO had begun investigations into IL&FS Transportation Network and the holding company. 

The ministry of corporate affairs on Monday took the unprecedented step of seeking a ban on auditors Deloitte Haskins & Sells and BSR & Co, a KPMG affiliate firm, for their alleged role in helping hide bad loans at IFIN. 

Appeal to the Indian Government to help us get our arrears

Respected Prime Minister,
                                         
                      Hearty congratulations on being elected for another term.
 
                      We, the resigning ex-employees of LIC of India would like to make a fervent appeal to you. Kindly ensure that we get our hard-earned, legally rightful dues from our ex-employer which seems to be living under a rock, blissfully unaware about the latest trends in Human Resource Development.

                        It has been repudiating our wage revision arrears since more than two decades, since 1997, to be precise! We have also not got the difference in Statutory Retirement Benefits like Provident Fund and Gratuity; arising due to wage revision.
       
                        LIC has admitted in its affidavit to the CIC that it has no reason on record to repudiate the arrears.

                        Besides, LIC of India is acting in a blatant 'Contempt of Court' manner by refusing to honor the Supreme Court's judgment favoring payment of arrears to the resigning employees, as wage is a constitutional right of the employees.

                        Hoping for a favorable resolution to this injustice! We will be highly obliged if you could see that justice is done and all of us get our long-outstanding dues with interest from our ex-employer, LIC of India.

                        Thanking you,
                                                                                                    Yours sincerely,

                                                                                       Resigning ex-employees of LIC of India

International Labor Day - A Day of Reckoning for L.I.C of India

This International Labor Day, L.I.C must be brought to book!

Dear friends,

                    

                  Today should be the day of reckoning for L.I.C of India, our ex-employer, which has unjustly deprived us of our rightful dues, since more than two decades. It must come to its senses today, wake up and undo its wrong-doing towards us. Will this International Labor Day prove to be lucky for us, or just fade away into History like the past ones?                   All of us must unite and collectively fight for our legal dues, with all our might. Let's wake up the sleeping giant!                                                                                                                                                                                                            Priya

P.S. This post was carried nearly verbatim, last year too, on this day! How many more of such International Labor Days must pass by, for L.I.C to come to its senses, undo its wrongdoings and bestow justice; regard the Supreme Court's judgments for a change?        It's high time that the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister stepped in, to put in a strong word for the long-suffering, resigning ex-employees.        Now that the concerned agencies are cracking a whip on the white-collar criminals, why not do the same with L.I.C? After all, it has been illegally repudiating our dues regularly, since 1997!

Consider this extract from a Supreme Court judgment, in 2007: 

SC - "Proviso of Para 3 is struck sown ultra vires"

 K. S. Raina.                                                                                       -      ------------Petitioner.

                        Versus

Union of India and others.                                                                         --------Respondents.

Coram:

The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rajiv Sharma, Judge.

Whether approved for reporting?*                                    Yes.

For the Petitioner:                                                  Ms. Ranjana Parmar, Advocate.

For Respondent No. 1:                                         Ms. Shilpa Sood,

Central Government Counsel.

For Respondents No. 2 & 3:                                Mr. Ashwani Sharma, Advocate.

Rajiv Sharma, J.

It has come in the supplementary affidavit filed on behalf of respondent No. 2 that the wage revision of the employees of the nationalized insurance companies follows a periodicity of five years, i.e. 1^st August 1987, 1^st August 1992, 1^st August 1997 and 1^st August 2002. Thus, it is evident that in normal circumstances wage revision should have taken place in the year 2002 instead of 2005.

Classification made by the employer on the basis of seeking premature retirement on the basis of two sets of retirement schemes is not sustainable being irrational and discriminatory. 

The petitioner has a constitutional right to get his pay including the revision in the pay scale and it is settled law by law the fundamental rights can neither be waived off nor bartered away.

The action of the respondents is not supported by any rational basis or intelligible differentia.

In the present case the petitioner was in fact in employment as on 1^st August 2002, the date from which the Notification (Annexure P-4) dated 21^st December 2005 has been made applicable.

Consequently, in view of the observations made above, send proviso of Para 3 of the Notification dated 21^st December 2005 is struck sown being ultra vires to the extent it deprives the petitioner and other similarly situated persons to get the benefit of revised pay scale with effect from 1^st August 2002 after applying the principle of severability.

According, the petition is allowed. The petitioner is held entitled to get the revised pay scale corresponding to his post he was occupying as on 1^st August 2002 till 15^th March 2004. The respondents are directed to work out the arrears etc. within six weeks from today.

December 3, 2007                                                                                      (Rajiv Sharma), J.

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Source: Supreme Court and High Court judgments relating to Insurance. 

Pension option granted again.

Source: https://www.businesstoday.in/top-story/government-approves-pension-option-for-42000-employees-of-psics/story/323942.html

Government approves pension option for 42,720 employees of PSICs

This benefit is applicable to those who have joined any of the Public Sector Insurance Companies (PSICs) on or before June 28, 1995.

 PTI        Last Updated: March 2, 2019  | 20:01 IST

In a big bonanza to over 42,000 employees of public sector insurance companies, the government Saturday decided to give one more pension option as retirement benefit to these leftover officers and staff who missed the opportunity in the past.

This benefit is applicable to those who have joined any of the Public Sector Insurance Companies (PSICs) on or before June 28, 1995.

"Govt. approves one more pension option for leftover employees of Public Sector Insurance Companies who joined on or before 28.06.1995. To benefit 42720 employees including 10720 senior citizens," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a tweet.

These employees had opted for contributory provident fund instead of the pension option.

Of the total beneficiaries, 24,595 are of LIC and 18,125 of five general insurance companies -- GIC, New India Assurance Company Ltd, National Insurance Company Ltd, Oriental Insurance Co Ltd, United India Insurance Co Ltd, an official statement said.

"In order to mitigate the hardship of such employees of whom many have retired, Government has decided, as a welfare measure, to allow one more opportunity to employees of PSICs who joined service on or before June 28, 1995, to opt for the Pension scheme of their respective organizations, in lieu of Contributory Provident Fund," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said.

The pension was introduced as a retirement benefit in PSICs with effect from June 1995, it said.

In April 1997, employees of LIC and General Insurance Companies namely GIC, New India Assurance Company Ltd, National Insurance Company Ltd, Oriental Insurance Co Ltd, United India Insurance Co Ltd, who joined service on or before 28 June 1995 were given another opportunity to opt for Pension as a retirement benefit.

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My take on this report and this issue:

During our conversation in the course of my exit interview, the then Manager (P&IR) had told me that when 40% of the employees were not working, the officers should get their work done by the remaining 60% of employees who were productive! When I pointed it out to him that it would be an injustice to the productive employees as they would be unnecessarily burdened with the additional work of the unproductive employees, he just shrugged and smiled sheepishly. Why should the unproductive employees be paid their salary if they are not working? I asked. He had no answer!

It was a revelation for me! LIC knows the exact number of black sheep in its yard, but will not herd them out, (read - retrench them), for reasons best known to it. It also considers such employees as loyal, as they at least warm their seats! L.O.L.

Now, in the light of this pension option being granted again, such unproductive employees in LIC, who have already been draining the precious resources of the Corporation by being unproductive or not working to their 100% potential, throughout their lackluster service, will be granted a cozy life after retirement too!

Persons like me who have resigned and left service after several years of sincere and hard work, have not even been given our arrears payable on wage revision in LIC since more than two decades, i.e. 1997 onwards till date!

I worked for 18.5 years and have not been paid the arrears legally due to me, from August 2007 to July 2010.

Even the difference in retirement benefits, like Provident Fund and Gratuity which are Statutory Payments, (accruing due to revised pay scales), have not been paid to the resigning employees.

We urge the Government to look into this matter on a priority basis. We also need money to survive! Our legally rightful dues must be paid to us at the earliest, with accrued interest. 

The Supreme Court has already given its decision in the affirmative, as early as 2007! The details are there in my earlier blogs.

Priya

P.S. My crusade against L.I.C's injustice towards its resigning employees, is in its 9th year. And still counting.....

Happy Women's Day! Women's Empowerment, the LIC Way!

            The topmost echelons of the management of L.I.C of India consist of many women. Unfortunately, while they are apparently interested in women's empowerment, (rather, just talking about it!) their actions belie their attitude. There are some who deliver powerful lectures on women's empowerment but when it comes to actually walking the talk, develop cold feet and coolly look the other way!
          

          My tryst with the R.T.I appeal to the organization for getting my arrears and answers to queries; proved the above-mentioned sad truth. If I'd have got all my answers, I'd have also felt empowered, but alas, these ladies have forgotten the very meaning of empowerment, by choosing to be the Devil's Advocate (literally)!
          

          True empowerment can be attained only by supporting others. If ladies deprive other ladies (and men!) of their legally rightful dues and also justify it, it's a matter of concern and shame. Surely, they can use their own sense of judgment, reasoning and logic to make the men in their team aware of their flawed and unjust decisions instead of towing their line and trying to save their jobs and maintaining the status quo!
          

          These ladies have not shown the slightest bit of support to the cause of the resigning employees; arbitrarily and unjustly not being given their arrears and difference in retirement benefits, by the management.

          So one can just conclude that women can be women's best friends and worst foes too!

          Once we get all our dues from the Corporation, I will be filling the form for Deha-daan (body-donation). That is my vow. 

          In case of my earlier demise, my family will be donating my body to my chosen hospital.

New AAO's post's applicants, think twice before joining LIC of India!

          Recently, LIC of India has advertised for recruitment of AAOs, in the newspapers. Most of you, who think that LIC's is a lucrative job with bright career prospects; and are eligible candidates; will fill in the forms. 
         
          Here's a warning. BEWARE! The reasons for exercising caution are as follows:

If selected, LIC of India will give you appointment letters, stating your expected salary, with a statement in brackets, saying, 'Wage Revision Due'.
But if you leave LIC within 3 years, you won't get the arrears due to wage revision and will be left high and dry. You'll run from pillar to post for your legally rightful dues, but won't get any response from LIC or you'll get the hackneyed response that 'as per rules, you are not eligible for arrears' payment.'

In every Charter of wage revision, LIC includes a Clause 3 1 ii)/b) which states that resigning employees will not get the arrears. This is in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court has declared this Clause to be ultra vires, in 2008.

In effect, if you stick around with LIC for a minimum of 20 years, you'll get the arrears, but if you leave before 20 years, even by one day, you won't get the arrears.

So friends, think carefully whether you'll continue to serve in LIC for so long and only then apply for the job. This is especially for the Direct Recruits as Assistant Administrative Officers in LIC of India.
If you are applying for other jobs in the Government Sector, simultaneously, and get some call letter from them after joining LIC, and decide to take up that offer and resign from LIC, you will not get the arrears payment because of LIC's Clause, as above-mentioned.

Let me give you an instance:

Mr. X joined LIC in 2013 and left in 2015, to join the Income Tax Department as an Income Tax Officer. As per the wage revision Gazette of 2016, he will not get arrears for those two years, in spite of having been on the salary roll of the Corporation from 2013 to 2015!

This injustice has been going on since 1st August, 1997. 

My sincere advice is that think not only twice but 2000 times before joining LIC of India. And if you do join, serve for full 20 years at least!
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 Kindly refer to my blog post dated 14.04.2015, as follows:

                 No mention of repudiation in the appointment letters!

         In the appointment letters to the employees, nowhere is it mentioned that the employees can't leave service, or that their arrears' payments will be repudiated if they leave service of the Corporation. So how can this clause be introduced, that too with retrospective effect? If at all it has to be introduced, it could be with prospective effect and the same should be mentioned in the appointment letters.
          In fact, some employees who joined LIC in the recent years, have been given appointment letters stating that the wage revisions are due, meaning that they will be eligible for the same when they are notified. But when they resigned from LIC, they were denied the arrears' payments! Shouldn't they have been informed about the repudiation's clause, beforehand, so that they could've made an informed decision?
          Likewise, even after their resignation letters were received by LIC, they should've been intimated accordingly, with respect to this clause. The fact that LIC regularly accepts resignations without doing so, indicates that LIC is not playing fair. It can easily keep the resignations pending and accept them after the notification is made public, so that they aren't deprived of their hard-earned dues.
         The Supreme Court has declared this clause itself to be ultra vires, meaning 'beyond reach' of the Chairman's powers. But obviously, LIC's management thinks that it is beyond any law of the Nation! It is a law unto itself!
          Besides, the Finance Ministry too ratifies this unjust clause in the Wage Arrears' Notification, every 5 years, since 2000; without considering the Supreme Court's judgement.
          LIC, (and the Finance Ministry), it's time for some serious introspection!