Justice Amarjeet Singh said a service circular issued in 2016 had the effect of a salary revision for government servants.

The judge said that, as a result, government pensioners were entitled under the Pensions Adjustment Act 1980 (PAA) to pensions corresponding to the adjusted salary.

Amarjeet ordered the director-general of the public services department (JPA) to make the necessary pension payments within three months from today.

He also refused an oral application for stay made by federal counsel M Kogilambigai and directed her to file a formal application.

Lawyers Shukor Ahmad and Baljit Singh Sidhu represented the applicants.

On Feb 29, 2024, the High Court here granted ex-civil servant Aminah Ahmad and her co-applicants leave to commence judicial review proceedings after the attorney-general raised no objection.

The application named the government and the JPA director-general as respondents.

It sought to compel the respondents to implement adjustments to their pensions in accordance with the formula prescribed in Sections 3 and 6 of the PAA prior to amendments to the law made in 2013.

Under the old scheme, a retiree’s pension was to be revised based on the prevailing salary of incumbent civil servants in the same grade.

The 2013 amendments introduced a flat-rate annual increment of 2%.

Aminah lost her initial suit in the High Court in 2020.

However, the Court of Appeal in 2022 overturned the decision, ruling that the amendments to the PAA in 2013 were null and void as they had put the applicants in a less favourable position than previously, in breach of Article 147 of the Federal Constitution.

On June 27, 2023, a five-member Federal Court bench upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision.