Supreme Court reserves verdict on plea to scrap pensions of former MPs

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on a plea seeking to scrap the lifelong pension to former members of Parliament.

The court was hearing a petition by the NGO Lok Prahari that said 82 per cent of the lawmakers were "crorepatis" and "the poor tax payers should not be made to bear the burden of their pension, including their family pension".

Saying this was not an ideal state of affairs, a bench of Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said they could not go into this aspect.

"We agree this is not an ideal state. But we can't go into it," observed the bench.

However, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal defended the grant of pension to former MPs saying their dignity has to be maintained. He also defended the provision of travelling allowance to them saying they had to travel to their constituencies.