Retired on 30 June or 31 December and Lost Your Last Increment?

Three quick tests: is this your problem?

First, the date. You must have retired on the last day of June or December, on reaching the age of superannuation, and your annual increment must have been due the very next day, on 1 July or 1 January. Since 2006, every central employee's increment has fallen on 1 July, and since the Seventh Pay Commission it falls on either 1 January or 1 July. So a 30 June retirement with a July increment date, or a 31 December retirement with a January increment date, is the pattern this page is about.

Second, the year. You must have completed the service that earns the increment: the twelve months since your previous increment, with satisfactory work and conduct. If your increment was withheld as a penalty, or you were on a long spell of extraordinary leave that does not count for increment, the claim may not hold.

Third, the pension. Your pension must have been fixed on pay that did not include that increment. Look at your PPO and your last pay slip. If the last pay shown is the pay you drew in June or December, without the increment that was due the next day, you are one of the people the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling was meant to help.

If all three fit, the rest of this page explains what you can claim, from which date, and how to get it.

Why the increment went missing in the first place

FR 26 deals with how increments are earned and drawn: an increment is earned by service in the post for the prescribed period and is drawn as a matter of course unless withheld. Under Rule 10 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, an employee gets the increment on 1 January or 1 July, depending on the date of joining, promotion or financial upgradation.

The problem is one of timing. An employee who retires on 30 June has worked every day of the year that earns the July increment, but he is no longer in service on 1 July, the day it would be paid. For decades the government's position was simple: no service on the due date, no increment. The pension was then fixed on the lower pay, and that shortfall stayed in the pension for life, carried into every later revision.

Thousands of retirees, from Group D staff to Group A officers, were affected each year. Those who retired on 30 June between 2006 and 2015 were hit hardest, because during the Sixth Pay Commission period there was only one increment date for everybody.

The cases and orders, in the order they came

From when the higher pension is paid

Pension only: what does not change

The government's orders are explicit that the notional increment is reckoned only for calculating pension. Gratuity and leave encashment were paid on the last pay you actually drew, and they are not recalculated. Many retirees expect a lump sum difference in gratuity and are disappointed; it is better to know this before writing to the office.

Commutation is less clear. If your basic pension goes up, the commuted portion was calculated on the old figure, and whether a fresh commutation of the increase can be asked for, and on what terms, is not settled across departments. Family pension is the other open question. A Department of Posts letter of 8 June 2026, as reported, takes the view that the notional increment may not count for family pension. Others read the orders differently. If you are a family pensioner, or are planning for your spouse's family pension, check the latest instructions for your department before assuming either way.

The increase will flow into future revisions. When the Eighth Pay Commission's recommendations are implemented for pensioners, the revised pension will be worked out on the higher base, so the benefit is larger than the monthly figure suggests today.

What it is worth: a rough worked figure

An annual increment under the Seventh Pay Commission matrix is about 3 per cent, taking you to the next cell in your level. Here's a made-up illustration. A Group B officer retires on 30 June 2022 drawing basic pay of about Rs 81,000. The next cell is about Rs 83,400. Pension is half of the last pay, so basic pension rises from about Rs 40,500 to about Rs 41,700, an increase of Rs 1,200 a month.

Dearness relief is paid on top, at the current rate (60 per cent from January 2026, subject to later orders), which adds about Rs 720, so the monthly difference is close to Rs 1,900. Arrears from May 2023 to October 2026, on basic pension alone, come to roughly Rs 50,000, before dearness relief at the rates that applied in each period is added.

For a Group C pensioner the figure is smaller in rupees but the same in proportion. It is not life-changing money for most people, but it is a permanent part of the pension, and the paperwork is not heavy. Advocate B.K. Singh's usual advice is to claim it by a simple application first, and to keep litigation for cases where the office refuses or misreads the orders.

Claiming it from your office, step by step

In most cases no court is needed. The pension revision is done by the last office you served in, through the Pay and Accounts Office and the Central Pension Accounting Office, or through SPARSH for defence civilians.

1. Check your own figures

   Take your last pay slip, your PPO and your service book entry for the last increment. Confirm your increment date, your retirement date and that you retired on superannuation.

2. Write to your last head of office

   Address a short application to the head of office where you last served, asking for revision of pension by counting the notional increment due on 1 July or 1 January, under DoPT OM No. 19/116/2024-Pers.Pol.(Pay)(Pt) dated 20 May 2025 and your ministry's implementing orders. Enclose copies of the PPO, last pay slip and your bank details.

3. Keep a dated copy

   Send it by speed post or hand it in against acknowledgement. Note the diary number. Many offices are working through long lists and an undated letter gets lost.

4. Follow up after six to eight weeks

   Ask in writing whether the revision proposal has gone to the Pay and Accounts Office. If you are told your case is not covered, ask for the reason in writing. That written refusal is what you will need later.

5. Check the revised PPO

   When the revised PPO or the corrigendum comes, compare the last pay and the pension figures with your own working, and check that arrears from 1 May 2023 have been credited by the bank.

6. Escalate if refused

   If the office refuses or does nothing for six months, a representation to the next higher authority and then an Original Application before the Tribunal are the next steps.

If the revised PPO itself has errors, see the page on correcting a PPO after a pension revision. For a pension that was never finalised in the first place, the page on pension or PPO not released is the place to start.

Grey areas and people who may be left out

• Voluntary retirement on 30 June. The orders speak of retirement on superannuation. A person who chose to retire voluntarily on 30 June is not clearly covered, and offices are likely to refuse. Such cases need to be argued on their own facts.
• Death in service on 30 June. The employee did not retire, and family pension follows its own rules. The family's claim is uncertain and depends on how family pension under the notional increment orders is finally read.
• Increment withheld as a penalty. If a penalty was running in the last year, the increment was not earned in the normal way. The claim is likely to fail for the period of the penalty.
• Extraordinary leave and dies non. Periods that do not count for increment can push your increment date or leave you short of the year. Check your service book.
• Retired before 2006. Before 2006, increment dates varied from person to person. A person who retired the day before an individual increment date faces the same logic in principle, but the current orders are framed around 30 June and 31 December and older claims are harder to establish.
• Increment date changed by promotion or MACP. If a promotion or upgradation in your last year moved your increment date, the date that counts is the one actually applicable to you then. The guide on January or July increment dates explains how that date is fixed.

Time and cost

Papers to attach

Railway, defence civilian, postal and telecom pensioners

Railway pensioners are covered by the Railway Board's letter of 21 May 2025 (No. PC-VI/2020/CC/13), which conveys the same directions to all zonal railways and production units. Apply to the personnel branch of your last division or workshop. The railway pension rules were replaced in January 2026, after that letter was issued, so if your zone is slow, ask in writing whether it is still applying the letter to retirees whose pensions were fixed under the older rules.

Defence civilians, such as MES staff, ordnance depot workers and clerical staff in army formations, have their pensions handled through SPARSH. The revision has to be initiated by the last unit or office as the sanctioning authority. If SPARSH shows no action, raise a grievance on the portal and send a written request to the unit as well; the page for civilian staff in defence units covers the forum.

Postal pensioners apply to the divisional office or circle office where they last served. Absorbed BSNL and MTNL pensioners are governed by the Department of Telecommunications' instructions of 26 May 2025, which apply the same directions to those who retired on or after 1 January 2006; the position for those who left under the 2019 voluntary retirement scheme was kept under examination in that order.

Autonomous bodies, PSUs, banks and state pensioners

The DoPT orders bind central government departments. Autonomous bodies that follow central pension rules, such as research councils, usually adopt such orders by their own decision, sometimes after a delay. If yours has not, a representation pointing to the central orders is the first step.

Mundinamani itself came from a state power utility, so the principle is not limited to central employees. But public sector undertakings, banks and state governments each follow their own pension regulations and orders. State government pensioners go to the State Administrative Tribunal where one exists, or to the High Court. PSU and bank pensioners go to the High Court. Do not assume the central arrears formula applies to them; check what their own employer has notified.

When going to the Tribunal still makes sense

After the Siddaraj order, filing a case now will not get you arrears before 1 May 2023. So the Tribunal is not the place to chase older money. It is the place to go when the department refuses a pensioner who clearly fits the orders, misreads them (for instance, by refusing 31 December retirees because their department thinks the benefit is only for 30 June), or does nothing for many months.

An Original Application under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 can be filed after a representation has been rejected, or after six months without a decision. A pensioner can file before the bench within whose area he ordinarily lives, which spares a retiree in Kanpur from travelling to the bench where he last served. A claim about the amount of pension is treated as a continuing wrong, so delay is less fatal than in other service cases, though arrears are governed by the Supreme Court's directions; see continuing wrong and old pay and pension claims.

If a Tribunal order in your favour is not implemented, the remedy is an application for compliance and, if needed, contempt. Advocate B.K. Singh tends to send a polite reminder with a copy of the order before filing anything further, because many offices move once the order is placed on the right desk.

If the office paid it earlier and now wants it back

Some pensioners won their own cases years ago, or were paid the increment by an office that read the early High Court rulings generously. After the 2025 orders, a few of them have received letters proposing to recover the arrears or to reduce the pension to the 1 May 2023 position. That is usually wrong. The DoPT OM of 20 May 2025 records the Supreme Court's direction that amounts already paid in excess, including arrears, are not to be recovered.

If you get such a letter, reply in writing within the time given. Point to that direction, attach your own judgment if you had one and it became final, and ask the office to withdraw the proposal. Do not ignore it, because a bank can start deductions on the strength of a PAO instruction, and getting money back after it has been taken is slower than stopping it. Rule 66(2) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 also limits the power to revise a pension once authorised, except for a clerical error, which gives you a second line of argument.

The general law on deductions from pension for old overpayments, including the Rafiq Masih protection for retirees, is set out on the page about recovery from pension for an old overpayment. Where the reduction also disturbs your commuted amount, see the page on commutation disputes.

Group does not change any of this. A retired Group A officer and a retired multi-tasking staff member are under the same orders and the same arrears rule. The only practical difference is that officers' pension files often sit with a ministry cadre cell rather than a local office, so the application has to go to the right desk.

Mistakes pensioners make with this claim

• Filing a court case first. Since the 2025 orders, most pensioners can get the revision by applying. A case filed without asking first adds cost and gets no extra arrears.
• Writing to the bank. The pension disbursing bank cannot revise your pension. The application must go to your last office.
• Expecting gratuity arrears. The orders limit the benefit to pension. Planning around a gratuity difference leads to disappointment.
• Not checking the revised PPO. Errors in the last pay figure, the effective date or the arrears period are common. Check every line.
• Accepting an oral 'not covered'. Ask for the reason in writing. A written refusal can be challenged; a remark at the counter cannot.

This week

Find your PPO and last pay slip, confirm that you retired on superannuation on 30 June or 31 December and that your increment was due the next day, and send a short application to your last head of office citing the DoPT OM of 20 May 2025. Keep a dated copy. If arrears from May 2023 have already been paid, check the revised figures against the worked example above. For wider pension problems, the guide on pension arrears and the three-year limit explains how older claims are treated.

If your office has refused, or you fall into one of the grey areas, the team at our Dwarka and Vaishali offices can look at your papers in person or online. For a reading of your PPO and pay slips, or for updates on the law on notional increments, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.