8th Pay Commission: Can government amend 8th CPC terms of reference to include pension revision?

The Bharat Pensioner Samaj (BPS) and the All India Defence Employees’ Federation (AIDEF) have recently written to the central government, seeking changes to the terms of reference (ToR) of the 8th Pay Commission. They want the ToR to include provisions for revising the pension and family pension of employees who retired before January 1, 2026.

The BPS and the AIDEF have also asked the government to remove the reference to the ‘unfunded cost of non-contributory pension schemes’ from the ToR. According to these two organisations, pensioners covered under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) are worried about this clause as they fear it could lead to pensions being treated as a financial burden rather than as a means of providing financial security to retired employees.

The government's decision to accept or reject their request is still hanging, but the true question is whether a pay commission's parameters of purpose may be changed.

The main two components of a pay commission's ToR are the areas it will focus on and the factors it will take into account. A pay commission starts its work only after the government notifies its ToR. In case of the 8th Pay Commission (8th CPC), the terms of reference were notified in November 2025. However, there have been many instances in the past when terms of reference of a pay commission have been amended.

Here are some of the examples going back to the 5th Pay Commission-

The government changed the ToR through a resolution dated September 8, 2015, which gave the commission an additional four months to complete its report. The initial ToR was announced on February 28, 2014, with an 18-month deadline. As per the amendment, the commission could submit its report till December 31, 2015.

On October 5, 2006, the 6th Pay Commission ToR was announced. However, the original ToR was amended twice by the government.

On December 7, 2006, the government made the first change, adding a paragraph stating that it will also regulate the salary, benefits, and other arrangements for ‘members of the regulatory bodies (excluding the RBI) set up under Acts of Parliament.’

In the 5th Pay Commission, ToR were amended not once but four times.

The original ToR was notified in April 1994. The first amendment was made in January 1995 when the government issued interim relief to employees and merged 20% dearness allowance with basic pay for the calculation of gratuity.

The second amendment came in July 1996, when the government provided another interim relief to employees.
In its third amendment in October 1996, the government excluded the members of the subordinate judiciary of union territories from its purview.

In the fourth amendment in November 1996, the government sought examination of different methodologies for the determination and payment of Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB).

The Commission also sought examination of the ad hoc bonus scheme in force in those departments where PLB schemes were not in operation.

With the government amending ToRs of the previous three pay commissions, it will be interesting to see if it amends the 8th CPC ToR and includes the demands of the AIDEF and the BPS regarding the pension and family pension revision for a large number of pensioners.