Gujarat high court junks Centre's plea over pension

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat HC on Monday dismissed an appeal of the Centre against an order to grant pension to a freedom fighter, who passed away in 2009, and his widow, who also died in 2019. The HC was critical of the Centre's reluctance and it cited the Supreme Court's observation that the government should go ahead and search for freedom fighters, who need not come to the government with a begging bowl.
While rejecting the appeal, the bench said, "He (freedom fighter) is dead and gone. His wife too is not there. Now, there is no recurring expenditure. It stopped at his wife. Till 2019, they extended (the pension) to his wife. Now, you will have to give the amount for both to their children so they also will feel happy that their father participated in the freedom struggle which has yielded some results." tnn
The Gujarat high court on Monday dismissed an appeal of the central government against an order to grant pension to a freedom fighter, who passed away in 2009 and his widow also died in 2019.
The HC was critical of the Centre's reluctance and it cited the Supreme Court's observation that the government should go ahead and search for freedom fighters, who need not come to the government with a begging bowl.
While rejecting the appeal, the bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri said, "He (freedom fighter) is dead and gone. His wife too is not there. Now, there is no recurring expenditure. It stopped at his wife. Till 2019, they extended (the pension) to his wife. Now, you will have to give the amount for both husband wife to their children so that they also will feel happy that their father participated in the freedom struggle which has yielded some result."
According to the case details, Trikambhai Parmar requested the Centre for pension under the Swatantra Senani Sanman Scheme, 1980 saying that he had gone to jail during the freedom movement. During the Quit India Movement, he was a proclaimed offender and an award was announced for his arrest and he remained underground for more than six months. He submitted that he was felicitated by the state government and was drawing a pension in a scheme by the state government.
His efforts for the pension from the Centre were in vain resulting into two litigations. In 2013, a single-judge bench ordered the Centre to pay the pension to Parmar, who had passed away by then. The Centre challenged the order claiming the document that Parmar submitted was not satisfactory. The division bench accepted the document furnished by Parmar - a certificate by fellow freedom fighter Nirubhai Desai that the British had declared an award for his arrest and he had gone underground.
The division bench was critical of the Centre's approach and said that when the state government was treating Parmar as a freedom fighter, the Centre should not have any issue. The only issue was his eligibility, but he remained underground for more than six months and this fulfilled the criteria of the scheme. The judges said, "the benefit of doubt should go to the applicant as he spent his valuable time of his youth for the freedom of this country. This cannot go unnoticed."
The judges further said, "In their prime youth, they (freedom fighters) fought for the freedom. They never expected that they would be getting freedom and there would be announcement of scheme for pension. This is a primary responsibility of the state to find out records from jail whether they were involved in the movement."