Delayed revised NPA arrears accrue GPF-rate interest from approval until actual payment.

The applicant, a retired Joint Director of ICAR-IVRI, sought revision of his pension to include revised NPA at 20% under the Seventh Central Pay Commission and payment of arrears with interest.

IVRI had informed him that the revised benefit had not been extended because the relevant Ministry of Finance order had not been endorsed by ICAR.

After an earlier Tribunal order directed the respondents to decide his representation, ICAR rejected it while the matter remained under consideration by the Ministry of Finance.

During the present proceedings, the respondents stated that revised NPA had subsequently been approved and communicated by ICAR on 9 February 2023; the applicant confirmed that the arrears had been paid but sought interest.

Whether the applicant was entitled to interest on the arrears of revised NPA already paid to him.

Whether the impugned order dated 8 October 2021 should be set aside in light of the subsequent approval of revised NPA.

The Tribunal proceeded on the basis that interest was payable on the delayed arrears of revised NPA at the applicable General Provident Fund (GPF) rate from the date the competent authority approved the revised benefit until actual payment.

The Tribunal cited no specific statutory provision, precedent, or separate legal test governing that entitlement; the application had been brought under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.

The respondents’ own position established that revised NPA for eligible ICAR veterinary scientists had been approved and communicated on 9 February 2023, after the impugned order was made.

Since the applicant’s arrears had since been paid, the remaining dispute concerned compensation for the delay. The Tribunal held that interest was due from the date of competent-authority approval—not from the earlier date claimed in the application—until actual payment, at the applicable GPF rate.

It directed the respondents to pay interest on the arrears of revised NPA, at the applicable GPF rate, for the period from 9 February 2023 until actual payment, and to complete the exercise within three months of receiving a certified copy of the order.

No order as to costs was made.