M K SAJEEV Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner was enrolled in the Indian Air Force as an Airman on 26th November, 1982 and retired from service on 30th November, 2002. The petitioner was promoted to the rank of Junior Warrant Officer which rank was held for the period of six months prior to his retirement. The grievance of the petitioner is that while calculating the pension, his rank as a Junior Warrant officer has not been taken into consideration on account of the fact that he had not completed 10 months of service in the said rank.

(2.) IT is not disputed that in terms of Pension Regulation for the Air force 1961, Part-I, a provision has been made in Regulation 122, which reads as follows:

(3.) IT has been pointed to the learned counsel for the respondent and it is not in dispute that in fact the Pension Regulation do not have a statutory force. It was thus not correctly pointed out to the Division Bench dealing with the case of M. Kumaran (supra) that the Pension Regulations though labelled as "regulations" actually have not statutory force. It may be noticed that such pension Regulations whether for the Army or for the Air Force have a similar character. It would be useful to reproduce the preface to the provisions of pension Regulations for the Army which clarify this aspect :