One Rank One Pension

One Rank One Pension, or OROP, is the defence pension scheme under which personnel who retire in the same rank with the same length of service receive the same pension, regardless of the date of retirement, with pensions re-fixed periodically so that increases are passed on to past pensioners. It was implemented with effect from 1 July 2014 by a Government of India order of 7 November 2015, and has since been revised twice, with effect from 1 July 2019 and 1 July 2024. It is a defence pension concept, distinct from Military Service Pay and the defence pay matrix , which concern the pay of serving personnel.

OROP was one of the longest-standing demands of the ex-servicemen community, and its implementation and periodic revision are a significant part of the defence pension framework. This article sets out what OROP is and the problem it solved, how and when it was implemented, the method of fixing pensions, the five-yearly revision and the revisions carried out so far, the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the scheme, who is covered and the premature-retirement controversy, its scale, and how it differs from serving pay. Load-bearing facts are cited to the Ministry of Defence and the Supreme Court.

What OROP is and the problem it solved

Before OROP, a defence pension was fixed on the pay at the time of retirement, so a soldier who retired decades ago on the pay scales of that time drew a much smaller pension than a soldier of the same rank and length of service who retired recently. Two personnel who had served identically, in the same rank for the same number of years, could draw very different pensions purely because they retired in different years. OROP removes this gap.

The principle, in the government’s own words, is that a uniform pension is paid to armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement, and that the gap between the pension of current and past pensioners is bridged at periodic intervals. So OROP levels the pension of a past pensioner up to that of a recent retiree of the same rank and service, and keeps it level through periodic revision.

Implementation

OROP was implemented with effect from 1 July 2014. The Government of India issued the order giving effect to it on 7 November 2015, covering armed forces personnel who had retired up to 30 June 2014. The delay between the effective date and the order meant that when OROP came into force it carried arrears back to 1 July 2014.

The scheme was placed with the Ministry of Defence, through its Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, which administers defence pensions. The order set out both the method of fixing the revised pensions and the commitment to revise them periodically, the two features that define OROP in practice.

How the pension is fixed

OROP re-fixes each pensioner’s pension by reference to recent retirees of the same rank and length of service. On the first implementation, pensions were re-fixed on the basis of personnel who retired in the calendar year 2013: for each rank and length of service, the pension was set at the average of the minimum and the maximum pension of those 2013 retirees. A pensioner already drawing more than this average had their higher pension protected, so no one lost.

This “average of minimum and maximum” method, on a fixed base year, is the mechanism of OROP. It brings every past pensioner of a given rank and service up to the same figure, calculated from a recent cohort, rather than attempting to track serving pay continuously. It is also the feature the scheme was challenged on, and which the Supreme Court considered.

The five-yearly revision

OROP is not a one-time exercise; the pensions are re-fixed every five years, so that as pensions rise for newer retirees, past pensioners are brought up again. This periodic re-fixation is what keeps the “one rank one pension” principle true over time, and it has produced a sequence of revisions, each on a fresh base year.

The base year moves forward five years at each revision, from 2013 to 2018 to 2023, matching the five-year cycle. The revision with effect from 1 July 2019 was notified in January 2023, with arrears from 2019, and the revision with effect from 1 July 2024 was notified by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare in September 2024. On the five-year cycle, the next revision falls due on 1 July 2029.

The Supreme Court’s decision

The method of OROP, the five-yearly revision rather than continuous updating, and the fixed base year, was challenged before the Supreme Court by ex-servicemen who argued for automatic and continuous equalisation of pensions. In Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement v. Union of India, decided on 16 March 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the government’s scheme.

The Court held that the government’s OROP policy, including the five-yearly re-fixation and the method of taking the average of the minimum and maximum pension of a base-year cohort, is a valid policy choice, is not arbitrary, and does not violate Article 14 of the Constitution. It declined to direct continuous automatic equalisation, treating the design of the scheme as a matter of policy for the government. The judgment settled the legality of the OROP scheme as implemented, while the periodic revisions due under it continued.

Who is covered, and the premature-retirement question

OROP covers defence pensioners across the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, including both commissioned officers and Junior Commissioned Officers and Other Ranks, and it covers family pensioners, including war widows and disabled and war-injury pensioners. It is a broad scheme reaching the great majority of the ex-servicemen community and their families.

One category was excluded, and it has been contested. Personnel who take premature or voluntary retirement on or after 1 July 2014 were kept outside OROP. This exclusion has been challenged as unfair to those who served the same rank and length of service but chose to leave early, and the Armed Forces Tribunal has ruled against the exclusion, though the position and its implementation have remained the subject of proceedings. A pensioner affected by the premature-retirement exclusion should check the current position, as it has been in flux.

Scale and cost

OROP is one of the largest pension commitments the government has made. The revision with effect from 1 July 2019 alone covered more than 25 lakh pensioners and family pensioners, including several lakh new beneficiaries, at an additional annual cost of the order of Rs 8,450 crore, and it carried arrears running into tens of thousands of crores of rupees, paid to most pensioners in instalments and to family pensioners and gallantry-award winners in a single instalment. The figures convey the scale: OROP is a recurring commitment covering a very large population of veterans and their families, revised every five years.

OROP and serving pay

It is worth being clear that OROP is a pension scheme, not a component of serving pay. It affects the pensions of personnel who have already retired, and the family pensions of their dependants. It is separate from Military Service Pay , the flat element added to the pay of serving personnel, and from the defence pay matrix , which sets serving pay. A serving soldier’s pay is governed by the matrix and MSP; a retired soldier’s pension is governed, in part, by OROP. The two operate on different populations through different instruments.

The next revision and the 8th Central Pay Commission

On the five-year cycle, the next OROP revision falls due on 1 July 2029, on a 2028 base year, following the pattern of the revisions so far. Separately, the 8th Central Pay Commission , constituted in November 2025, will in due course revise pay and pensions across the services, and how a pay-commission pension revision interacts with the OROP revision cycle will be a matter for the government to work out on implementation. It would be speculation to state that interaction now.

As on 3 July 2026 the position is that OROP has been revised with effect from 1 July 2024 on the 2023 base, the scheme covers defence pensioners and family pensioners of the same rank and length of service on equal terms, and the next revision is due in 2029. For the wider retirement framework, see the central government pension article.

See also

• Military Service Pay
• Defence pay matrix
• Central government pension
• Commutation of pension
• Dearness relief
• Family pension
• Old Pension Scheme
• National Pension System
• Unified Pension Scheme
• Gratuity for central government employees
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• Central government employees in India
• Pay matrix
• Income tax for government employees
• Department of Expenditure
• 7th CPC salary calculator

External references

• Ministry of Defence
• Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare
• Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions)
• Controller General of Defence Accounts

References

1. Ministry of Defence, order dated 7 November 2015, implementing One Rank One Pension with effect from 1 July 2014, on the 2013 base year and the average of minimum and maximum pension.
2. Ministry of Defence, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, order dated 20 January 2023, revising OROP with effect from 1 July 2019 on the 2018 base year.
3. Ministry of Defence, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Office Memorandum dated September 2024, revising OROP with effect from 1 July 2024 on the 2023 base year.
4. Supreme Court of India, Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement v. Union of India, judgment dated 16 March 2022, upholding the OROP scheme.