Contributory pension: Kerala govt ready to hand over committee report after SC rap

Thiruvananthapuram: The government will soon hand over the report of the committee that was appointed to reexamine the contributory pension scheme to the  Joint Council of State Service Organisation General Secretary Jayachandran Kallingal. This is in response to the Supreme Court’s (SC)intimation that the delay in producing the report may invite contempt of court proceedings. The Chief Secretary has been summoned to arrive directly by the SC on Friday. However, in case the government releases the particular report before this, then the Chief Secretary can skip the summons, noted the SC bench chaired by Justice AS Oka. The government’s move to submit the report is to avoid this summons. However, the government has not received a copy of the court’s order. 

The copy of the report will be directly handed over to Jayachandran. The report was kept under wraps stating it to be a secret document for two years and ten months. It was the LDF government that came into power in 2016 that appointed the committee in 2018 to reexamine the scheme. This report was submitted in 2021 but neither released nor took any further action in this regard. 

Earlier, the state Right to Information Commission had also directed the government to release a copy of the committee report. However, back then, the Kerala High Court issued an order in favour of the state government in the case. The court noted that the report which had by then become a cabinet document could not be released until it was studied in detail. However, the argument that the particular report is a potential cabinet paper seems to have not pleased the apex court bench.