Go to homes of freedom fighters to disburse pension, Bombay high court tells Maharashtra govt

The high court further directed the state to start paying pension to the widow as an interim arrangement from October 2021 as she had been pursuing the same since 1993 till her petition was decided

The Bombay high court (HC), while deprecating the state government’s refusal to grant pension of a deceased freedom fighter to his 90-year-old widow for want of a jail certificate, has directed the secretary of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to assist the widow in collecting documents to prove that the deceased husband was a freedom fighter. The woman’s husband had died in 1965 and as per her claims, he had been jailed for a period of six months in 1944 for participating in the 1942 Quit India Movement.

The high court has directed the secretary of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to assist the widow in collecting documents to prove that the deceased husband was a freedom fighter.

The court further directed the state to start paying pension to the widow as an interim arrangement from October 2021 as she had been pursuing the same since 1993 till her petition was decided. The state government had implemented the pension scheme in 1980.

The division bench of justice Ujjal Bhuyan and justice Madhav Jamdar which was hearing the petition of Shalini Chavan, was informed by advocate Jitendra Pathade that the nonagenarian had been seeking pension of her deceased husband since 1993 but the authorities had refused to include the name of her husband as a freedom fighter.

Chavan’s petition further stated that her husband had participated in the Quit India Movement in 1942 and had been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for 18 months with a fine of ₹50 on February 12, 1943, for such participation. Initially, he was lodged in Thane District Prison, after which, he was transferred to Byculla prison on April 17, 1944. However, he was released on June 29, 1944. Thereafter, Chavan died on March 12, 1965. The petition further states that the son of Laxman and Shalini Chavan also passed away, as a result of which Shalini was hoping that her deceased husband’s pension would help her take care of her expenses.

The state government had implemented the Freedom Fighters Pension Scheme in 1980 and freedom fighters had to submit the original imprisonment certificate to get the pension. In the previous hearing on September 24, Pathade had informed the court that as it was not possible to get the document from the prison after the passage of time, Shalini was unable to furnish the same. The court had asked the state to respond.

While responding to the court query, the government pleader Poornima Kantharia informed the bench that without the original imprisonment certificate, freedom fighters could not benefit from the pension scheme.

After hearing the submissions, the bench referred to a Supreme Court (SC) judgement which held that ‘the prescription of a rigid time-limit for the proof of entitlement in the very nature of things is demeaning. The Apex court had further held that benefit should flow from the date of the application and not from any other date.

The bench also referred to the SC observation which stated, ‘If the Scheme has been introduced with the genuine desire to assist and honour those who had given the best part of their life for the country, it ill-behoves the government to raise pleas of limitation against such claims. In fact, the government should find out the freedom fighters or their dependents and approach them with the pension instead of requiring them to make applications for pension. That would be the true spirit of working out the Scheme.’

Thereafter the bench directed the secretary of DLSA to go to the house of the widow and help her put together the documents or verify her claim by speaking to the resident and known personalities and submit the same to the concerned authority who would decide on the widow’s application within two months. The court also directed the state to start paying pension to the widow from October 2021 onwards and posted hearing of the petition to January 6, 2022.