The
Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed an appeal preferred by the
Union Home Ministry challenging a single judge’s order to grant
Swatantrata Sainik Samman pension to a 97-year-old who was recommended
for the honour by well-known freedom fighter I. Mayandi Bharathi.
A
Division Bench of Justices V. Ramasubramanian and N. Kirubakaran
rejected the writ appeal with a direction to the Deputy Secretary,
Ministry of Home Affairs, to pass the necessary orders for paying the
monthly pension, along with arrears since 1995, to A. Pambiah Thevar of
Madurai within eight weeks.
Respected personality
Stating
that Mr. Bharathi, a respected personality, would not have issued a
recommendation letter without any basis, the judges said, in such
circumstances, the officials should not have rejected the plea for
pension “mechanically” and “on the basis of technicalities” just because
the application form was not in order.
They
also recorded the submissions of the claimant that he took part in the
Quit India movement in 1942 and participated in a protest march at
Goripalayam here besides distributing pamphlets condemning the British
rulers. He also went underground for a year between 1942 and 1943
fearing arrest.
Though
he laid a claim for the Centre’s freedom fighters pension in 1995 and
got recommended by the State Government in 1997, the benefit was not
accorded to him for one reason or the other. Hence, he filed a writ
petition in 2014 and obtained a favourable order from a single judge on
June 17,
Regards,
E.R.Iyer
