Raj HC stays govt's decision on pension to Emergency prisoners

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The Rajasthan High Court today stayed the state government's decision to grant pension to prisoners lodged in jails during Emergency and sought its reply on the issue.
The Rajasthan government had on July 18 last year announced a monthly pension of Rs 12,000 and a monthly medical allowance of Rs 1,200 to each political prisoner of Emergency in state under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) 1971 and Defence of India Rules (DIR) 1971.
Two residents of Pali -- Shanti Lal Jain and Murli Manohar -- had moved a PIL in the high court challenging these rules and the notification dated February 28, 2014.

Their counsel Narpat Singh argued in the court that the government has provisioned a budget of approximately Rs 9 crore for this pension from the state's Social Security and Welfare Fund.
Terming it unconstitutional and an injustice to the deprived and BPL persons of the state, he argued that the government is diverting this fund for pension to those who are well established in political and business fields.
Hearing these arguments, the Division Bench comprising justices Govind Mathur and Jai Shree Thakur imposed an interim stay on this pension scheme and issued notices to the state government seeking its reply in the matter.

It may be recalled that during her previous rule in the state, chief minister Vasundhara Raje had decided to provide pension benefits to the emergency prisoners but before the scheme could come into force through a notification, her government got dethroned and the succeeding Congress government had dumped the scheme.