Withholding Freedom Fighter's Pension Not Justified: Bombay High Court
NDTV
The petitioner's lawyer told the court that the pension scheme's benefit was not extended to Shalini Chavan on the ground that records of her husband's arrest and imprisonment were not available.
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 90-year-old wife of a freedom fighter, who died 56 years ago, seeking benefits of a government pension scheme.
A division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav Jamdar issued the order on September 24 and a copy of it was made available on Monday.
The 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 fighter.
As per the plea, the woman's husband, Laxman Chavan, was a freedom fighter and had participated in the Quit India Movement in 1942.
