In a significant victory for reservist sepoys, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld an Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) judgment directing the government to restore pension protection for re servist sepoys as per regu lations, entitling them to higher pensions. Under the ‘Colour + Reserve’ enrolment sys tem, sepoys served 15 years, including eight years in colour service and seven years in re serve, qualifying them for “reservist pension”. This pension was initially set at Rs 10 per month, with the lowest grade se poy receiving Rs 15 per month. Over time, the government formalised the two-third formula in 1986 to ensure reservists didn’t receive more than two-thirds of a sepoy’s pension. However, the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme intro duced in 2014 disrupted this protection, reduc ing reservist pensions to less than half of what a lowest-grade sepoy re ceived. AFT intervened in July 2023, ruling that reservists, although con sidered sepoys, weren’t entitled to equal OROP but deserved two-thirds pension protection.