Clear arrears of 94-year-old freedom fighter, HC tells Karnataka govt

Justice Krishna S Dixit in the order said that all arrears of the nonagenarian be cleared and settled within six weeks or those responsible for the delay shall ‘personally & collectively’ pay him ₹1,000 for the delay each day and that this amount be recovered from erring officials

Bengaluru Granting relief to a 94-year-old freedom fighter, who was denied Freedom Fighters Pension by the state government, the Karnataka high court directed that all arrears of the nonagenarian be cleared and settled within six weeks.

The petitioner’s claim for Freedom Fighters Pension was rejected on the grounds that he had not produced the affidavit of two persons who were detained with him because of their participation in the struggle for Independence of the country. (Representational image)

Justice Krishna S Dixit who delivered the verdict, in the order, stated that all arrears of the nonagenarian be cleared and settled within six weeks or those responsible for the delay shall “personally & collectively” pay him ₹1,000 for the delay each day and that this amount be recovered from erring officials.

Gundurao Desai from Kamalapura in Ballari district, about 320 kms from Bengaluru, is the petitioner in the case and the respondents included the department of home, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner of Ballari district and the Tahsildar of Hosapete taluk.

The petitioner’s claim for Freedom Fighters Pension was rejected on the grounds that he had not produced the affidavit of two persons who were detained with him because of their participation in the struggle for Independence of the country, the court said in its order on September 7.

The HC stated that the petitioner made the claim for pension in March 1998 “except that the file moved from this office table to that” and nothing had happened for more than two decades. The court reprimanded the state government for not at least giving some concession to the “shortness of human life” and that the process moved at “snail speed”.

The HC added that the state government has to be gentle and humane when considering the claims of such persons and their just claims cannot be rejected on “flimsy grounds”.

The court also stated that the petitioner had specifically stated in January 2021 that only one of the two co-detenues is alive and others are dead and the insistence of asking Rao to produce the affidavits of two co-detenues “virtually amounts to compelling him to retrieve the dead from their grave, infuse soul into their body and ask them to swear to the affidavit” which was an impossibility with all the progress medical science has till now achieved.

“The approach of the statutory authorities to the compassionate policies of the State such as Freedom Fighters Pension Schemes should not hijack justice in the ritualistic adherence to the black letter of law and in a gross disregard to its spirit,” the HC said.