The Punjab and Haryana High Court is hearing a case over the One MLA, One Pension Scheme that Punjab introduced for MLAs. While hearing the petition, the High Court sought notice from the State Government and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on this issue.
The petitioners are former MLAs of Punjab. Their main complaint is the implementation of this scheme from the beginning. Six former legislators, including Rakesh Pandey, Lal Singh, Sarwan Singh, Sohan Singh Thandal, Mohan Lal, and Gurvinder Singh Atwal, have filed the petition.
In the petition filed, the former MLAs have said that by issuing a letter on August 24, it has been decided to reduce the pension of the MLAs. Before taking this decision, the government equated those MLAs who have been MLAs for a long time and those MLAs who have become MLAs for only one term. In this way, those MLAs who have been MLAs for a long time will get the same pension as MLAs who have been MLAs for only one term.
The petitioners have sought a direction to quash the letter dated August 24, 2022, through which the scheme was notified without legal authority, illegal, and unconstitutional. The petitioners have also demanded to keep the earlier rule of their pensions in force.
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It has been said in the petition that in this way, those who have 20 years of experience have been equated with those who are completely new. This is a direct violation of the rules.
Thus, this decision should be implemented for the future and not on the former MLAs. According to the former MLAs, the new provisions have a significant impact on their pension.
As per the new rules, they will be paid a pension of only Rs 60,000 per month plus allowance (admissible to Punjab government pensioners) thereon, irrespective of the number of times he has become an MLA. There has been a call to instruct the government to only secure and release the pension in accordance with the former rules.