Withholding freedom fighter's pension not justified, says HC; seeks Maha govt's reply to woman's plea

Withholding the pension of a freedom fighter was not justified the Bombay High Court has said and directed the Maharashtra government to respond to a plea filed by a 90yearold wife of a freedom fighter who died 56 years ago seeking benefits of a government pension schemeA division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav Jamdar issued the order on September 24 and a copy of it was made available on MondayThe court was hearing a petition filed by Shalini Chavan a resident of Raigad district seeking benefits of the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme 1980 to be accorded to her as her late husband was a freedom fighterAs per the plea the womans husband Laxman Chavan was a freedom fighter and had participated in the Quit India Movement in 1942He was later sentenced following which he was imprisoned at the Byculla jail in Mumbai from April 17 1944 to October 11 1944 He died on March 12 1965The petitioners lawyer Jitendra Pathade told the court that the pension schemes benefit was not extended to Shalini Chavan on the ground that records of her husbands arrest and imprisonment were not availablePathade argued that the petitioner had in 1966 submitted the imprisonment certificate of her late husband to the state government but it could not verify the same as the old records of the Byculla prison containing details of her husbands imprisonment seem to have been destroyed or must have perished over the yearsThe court after hearing the matter briefly noted that from the material available on record there does not appear to be any dispute as to the status of Laxman Chavan being a freedom fighter and as regards the petitioner being his widowldquoIf that be so then withholding of a freedom fighters pension that too for such a long period is not justifiedrdquo the high court saidThe bench directed government pleader Purnima Kantharia to obtain instructions from the state government and apprise the court on September 30In her plea Shalini Chavan said she is a senior citizen without any support following her sons death and is struggling for her daily needsAccording to the petition after the death of Laxman Chavan she applied for an imprisonment certificate from the superintendent of Byculla jail in 1966 After the certificate was issued to her the petitioner approached the government in 1993 for grant of pension and other benefits under the schemeThe plea said the petitioner had submitted all required documents to the government In 2002 the petitioner also appeared before the state governments freedom fighter high powered committee where she was informed that her pension claim would be sanctionedldquoHowever till date the petitioner has not received any pension and hence she was left with no remedy than to approach the high courtrdquo the petition saidIn her plea Shalini Chavan also sought a direction to the state government to pay her an exgratia sum of Rs 10 lakhThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever