In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld the RBI's 2020 pension scheme and its cut-off date of 01.07.2020 for pension commencement, rejecting a retired employee's claim for arrears from his retirement date. The Court held that employers can fix cut-off dates in pension schemes based on financial constraints without violating constitutional equality principles. Once a beneficiary accepts a scheme as a complete package, they cannot selectively reject unfavourable terms while retaining benefits. The projected ₹900+ crore financial burden of retrospective payments justified the prospective-only structure. Applying the doctrine of approbation and reprobation, the Court ruled that accepting a scheme's benefits bars subsequent challenges to its conditions. The judgment reaffirmed judicial restraint in reviewing policy-based administrative decisions involving finances and pensions.
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