Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, who sent out an unclassified signal on September 24 to all naval officers and ranks on withholding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission salary recommendations, is learnt to have been pulled up again by Defence Minister A K Antony for the manner in which he, as Chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee, led the other two chiefs — General Deepak Kapoor and Air Chief Marshal Homi Major — in virtually attacking the establishment.

This is the third time Admiral Mehta has been pulled up by Antony in recent months — earlier, he was pulled up for his remarks over the build-up of Chinese submarines.

It is learnt that while Antony has agreed to look into grievances, even push in Parliament the “demands” of the armed forces over pay, he is upset by the way Admiral Mehta dealt with the matter. After being almost nudged by Admiral Mehta to “refuse” implementation of the pay panel report, the armed forces did not submit their revised salary slips to the Ministry’s accounts office.

Antony is part of a three-member panel — the others are Pranab Mukherjee, the panel head, and P Chidambaram — tasked to look into the pay anomalies. On September 26, he had an uncharacteristic tough talk with the three chiefs. He is now said to have conveyed to Mukherjee that the Government has agreed in principle to the Services’ demand for restoring 70 per cent “extant pensionary weightage” to jawans on the basis of their last drawn pay.

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