Team Herald
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the case of Sitakant S Dubhashi for the Central freedom fighter pension for his participation in the Goa Liberation Movement, overturning the judgment of the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court to grant him the central pension from 11.03.2008.
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The Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Navin Sinha held in a 37-page judgment that the Central pension scheme had a cut-off date regarding Goa’s freedom fighters and as such Dubhashi had no claim to get the pension after that date.
He had applied for the Central pension after the scheme was reopened by the Goa government in 2003 and he was sanctioned the State pension from 01.12.2007 and on the strength of that sanction sought the Central pension.
The Court noted the eligibility criteria of minimum six months of imprisonment fixed for the Centre’s Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, 1980 and it was extended to the participants of the Goa Liberation Movement who fulfilled the criteria. Dubhashi applied for it in 1982, but the Centre rejected it in 1985 on the ground that his case was not recommended by the SSP.
In 2003, the Centre decided to extend the central pension scheme to the participants of the Goa Liberation Movement Phase-II (1954-55). Dubhashi first applied for the State pension on 28.07.2001 which was turned down in December 2012 on the report from the Deputy Inspector General of Police that his name does not figure in the freedom fighters register.
His fresh application for the State pension was, however, placed before a committee set up by the State government in 2003 and he figured among 22 persons approved by the committee for grant of the State pension and a pension payment order was issued in March 2008 to Dubhashi with effect from 01.12.2007.
On the strength of this State pension, Dubhashi again applied for the Central pension in November 2009 which was rejected on the ground that he was not eligible under the relaxed criteria for the Goa Liberation Movement Phase-II since only those in receipt of State pension by 01.08.2002 were eligible.
The Apex Court noted that the High Court passed the order directing the Centre to grant the central pension to Dubhashi since it did not respond to the High Court notice. It overturned the High Court order on the basis of the affidavits filed by the Centre. It agreed with the government’s counsel that the Central pension was extended only to those getting the State pension on 01.08.2002 and that this date was deliberately and consciously included in the scheme.
