Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting of TSEWA held on 26th September 2018 at 143 Vayupuri, Secunderabad
The following attended:
(a) Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd) President in Chair
(b) Cmde Sudheer Parakala (Retd) Vice President
(c) Col (Dr) GB Sethi (Retd) General Secretary
(d) Lt Col G Parvatesam (Retd) Treasurer
(e) Gp Capt CRR Sastry (Retd) Jt Secretary
(f) Hony Capt B Joseph (Retd) Jt Secretary
(g) Hony Capt MN Reddy (Retd) Member
(h) Col VS Ramana Reddy (Retd) Member in Attendance
(i) Col Ravi Chowdary (Retd) Member in Attendance
The President welcomed all present and requested the General Secretary to start the meeting with his points.
Points from General Secretary
Condolence Letter: The General Secretary said that sending a Condolence letter to the next of kin of a deceased member was mooted, but he felt that it is not a practical proposition for we have a large membership and limited resources. Cmde Sudheer Parakala felt that when ever a member dies the membership is automatically transferred to his spouse and hence this should be intimated along with condolences. This action can be initiated only when authentic intimation of the demise of the member is received from the spouse/NOK of the member. After deliberation it was decided that whenever TSEWA Hq is informed, the Obituary will be posted on the TSEWA Blog and a mail/SMS will be sent to the Spouse/NOK about transfer of Membership to the spouse/NOK.
Action: General Secretary Info: All
Legal Cases:The General Secretary said that there is an inordinate delay in filing of cases which is leading to repeated queries from members who are applicants in the case. Cmde Sudheer Parakala said that there should be a time line in which cases are filed and we should hold our advocates accountable for it. Gp Capt CRR Sastry said that Brig SKS Rana would require two weeks to scrutinise the documents and hand over to the Counsel. The Counsel needs to prepare and issue a Legal Notice and allow two months to the respondents to reply. There after he needs to get the OA ready and file it. So, we may need 16 to 20 weeks to file a case.
Info: All
Refund of Legal Fees: The General Secretary said that often a number of members demand refund of Legal fee paid citing delay in filing the OA. While Cmde Sudheer Parakala said that such a demand is genuine, the General Secretary said that TSEWA would have expended considerable resources before the documents reach Brig SKS Rana and hence full refund may not be feasible. It was decided that hence forth once the documents in a case are forwarded to President Legal Division at Delhi, no refund should be allowed.
Info: All
Additional Documents:The General Secretary said that in some cases after the OA is filed, the bench of AFT during a hearing calls for certain additional documents and our counsel is duty bound to provide them in the interest of getting justice to our members. All members of TSEWA who are applicants in such cases must cooperate and provide the documents called for and failure to do so, may result in their name being deleted by the Tribunal. In certain cases, it may be expedient for the counsel to with draw a case as dismissed and advise the applicants to make representations to appropriate authorities for relief. In such cases, the members should abide by the advice of our Counsel, failing which their names may be deleted by the tribunal.
Info: All
Queries from Applicants: The General Secretary said that there are frequent queries from applicants about the status of cases awaiting filing. Such queries are generally addressed to the General Secretary and since we have a large number of cases, he gets a large number of queries. Some conversations/emails in this context are awkward/rude. He felt that such queries are best addressed by the concerned Coordinator. Cmde Sudheer Parakala felt that Coordinator may not have full and real time info on his case to answer the query. Gp Capt Sastry said that the progress on cases awaiting filing will be discussed each week and a dead line would be fixed. Coordinators/Office staff may note the deadlines for answering the queries.
Action. General Secretary& Coordinators Info: All
Points from the Treasurer.
Expenditure: The Treasurer said that the Expenditure is being monitored closely to keep it with in the income expected and it is under control as of now. The expenditure will be watched closely to keep it within limits and further economy will be effected as and when necessary.
Info: All
Sec 80G Exemption: The Treasurer said that third IT Return has been filed and the TSEWA has become eligible for applying for exemption under Sec 80G of the IT Act. He said that he had a discussion with our Chartered Accountant on the subject and that our application on the subject will be submitted soon. Further he was assured that we would get an appointment with Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Hyderabad in October 2018 for this.
Action: Treasurer Info: All
Submission of Life Time Arrears Nomination: The Treasurer said that all Veteran Pensioners and Family Pensioners should submit the Nomination for Life Time Arrears as per rules and get the acknowledgement from their PDA. This will save their legal heirs considerable harassment and expenditure in getting the arrears due to Veteran Pensioners and Family Pensioners. In the absence of such Nomination, the heirs of the Veteran Pensioners and Family Pensioners have to produce the Legal Heir Certificate from the Court of Competent Jurisdiction or a Revenue Authority which can be costly and time consuming. Gp Capt CRR Sastry said that we should post the Form A and detailed procedure to submit the LTA on our Blog and send a bulk SMS to all our members to peruse this. It was decided that Form A and detailed procedure to submit the LTA will be posted on our Blog and a bulk SMS will be to all our members to act on this.
Action: Gp Capt CRR Sastry Info: All
SOP for Filing the Cases: The Treasurer said that we should have a Standard Operating Procedure for Filing the legal cases and the SOP should lay down the time lines. Gp Capt CRR Sastry agreed to write the SOP and circulate for discussion and approval.
Action: Gp Capt CRR Sastry Info: All
Progress of Cases awaiting Filing: At this juncture Brig SKS Rana, President Legal Division was requested to join the discussion and give the progress on cases. The Progress is as under:
(a) AFT 8A. This case seeking the Pension of Nb Sub for Pre-2006 Hony Nb Sub with Hony Nb Sub Fauji Ram as Lead Litigant was filed in the AFT and the OA No is likely to be allotted by this week end or in the next week.
Info: All
(b) AFT 20 & 21. The Counsel has called for the details of recovery effected in respect of applicants of AFT 20 and the amount of loss suffered by the applicants in AFT 21. Till now the details in respect of 6 applicants were received and it was decided some more efforts will be made to get the details from other applicants. For AFT 21, President has agreed to calculate the loss suffered.
Action: Members & President Info: All
(c) AFT 28 & 29. Brig SKS Rana said that Legal Notices have been issued in these cases and they will be filed by end of first week of October 2018.
Action: Brig SKS Rana Info: All
(d) AFT 1B. Brig Rana said that filing of this case is kept on hold as we are expecting a Rem Judgment in OA 34/2016 and this course will save some money for members and avoid litigation. The house requested him to reconsider the matter as members who joined 1B will suffer if Rem judgment does not come and TSEWA will face avoidable embarrassment. Since the applicants have committed the fee for the case, the house felt that we should file OA for 1B immediately. Brig SKS Rana agreed to act on the suggestion of the house and discuss the matter with our Counsel.
Action: Applicants in Concerned Cases Info: All
(e) Class Litigation in AFT. Brig SKS Rana mentioned that of late he is getting an impression that class litigation OAs are being discouraged in the AFT Principal Bench as some Members of Bench seem to feel that their productivity will look better if they dispose of a large number of OAs. He said that at present juncture, no advocate is ready to press Class suits action when it is discouraged by the Bench, but he will continue his efforts for filing class suit actions.
Info: All
Progress of Cases awaiting Filing by Col Ravi Chowdary. Col Ravi said that he will file BB – 4 cases in respect of Army and Air Force in next two weeks and the case for Navy after the Lead Litigant Cmde Shambhunath signs the OA. He was requested to expedite the filing these cases.
Action: Col Ravi Chowdary Info: All
Points from President
Volunteering by Cdr Satyajit Ray: President said that Cdr Satyajit Ray of Kolkata has volunteered to devote his time and efforts for TSEWA work in West Bengal and North East. The house concurred with the view of the President that he should be requested to devote his efforts to further the cause of forming the State Level Confederation of ESM Organisations in West Bengal and North Eastern States.
Info: All
Brig R Vinayak, VSM (Retd): The President shared the happy news that Brig R Vinayak, VSM was appointed the President of IESL Chapter of MP. The house welcomed his appointment and hoped that it will pave way for more Unity among the ESM Organisations.
Info: All
There being no other points the meeting ended at 1130 h.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Retd)
President, TSEWA