HC orders posthumous pension to freedom fighter

The Madras High Court today asked officials to decide the freedom fighters' pleas for pension pragmatically to repay them the nation's gratitude and not to get stuck in the rigidity of rules in deciding the same.

A Madurai bench of Justice V Parthiban advised officials to take pragmatic decisions on freedom fighter's plea for pension, while directing the Centre and the Madurai district collector to grant posthumously the pension arrears of freedom fighter P S Periaiah, who died in 2014 during pendency of his petition. He was 91.

The pension arrears under the Centre's 'Swatantra Sainik Samman' scheme from the date of application in 2007 till his death on January 8, 2014 should be paid to the heirs of the freedom fighter within eight weeks, the bench said.
 

Justice Parthiban gave the order on the plea, originally filed by Periaiah challenging rejection of his application for the pension in 2007.

After his death, his heirs made themselves the party to his petition.

Justice Parthiban set aside the Madurai district collector's order which had rejected the claim for pension on the ground that proper certificates for staying in the prison and his birth certificate were not submitted.

"They are very old people. They cannot secure definite piece of evidence after several decades. The officials should not insist on technicalities like give two certificates, give birth certificate etc," the judge said.

"Insisting on primary evidence birth certificate at the age of 91 was untenable. Strict construction and sticking to the rigidity of the provision of the samman pension scheme should give way for the larger public interest of honouring the freedom fighters by repaying them our gratitude," he said.

Agreeing with the petitioners' counsel that the officials should have approached the issue pragmatically, he said the certificate issued by one freedom fighter in support of Periaiah's claim was found genuine. Any piece of evidence would be sufficient for grant of pension.

Besides, the late petitioner was getting state government's freedom fighter pension. A liberal approach should be followed in granting pension, the judge said noting that as per law secondary evidence was also enough.