Cuttack, July 10: Orissa High Court directed the state government to form an anomaly committee to look into the pension enhancement issue of joint secretaries and deputy secretaries, who had retired before January 1, 2006.

The court expected the state government to complete the exercise within six months.

The division bench of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice S.N. Prasad issued the direction while disposing of a petition, which the state government filed challenging an order issued by the State Administrative Tribunal on July 9, 2014.

Acting on the petition, the tribunal had quashed an order issued by the finance department on January 19, 2009, and directed the state government to form a fitment committee for applying an equitable formula for enhancement of the pension of joint secretaries and deputy secretaries, who had retired prior to January 1, 2006. The state government had not implemented the tribunal order but challenged it in the high court this year.

The dispute centred on the denial of enhancement of pension on the basis of Orissa Revised Scales of Pay Rules, 2008 (notified on January 19, 2009), to the employees, who had retired while serving in the rank of joint secretaries and deputy secretaries prior to January 1, 2006.