The Allahabad High Court recently dismissed a PIL, which had raised the grant of medical facilities to retired judges of the High Court, as infructuous.
The matter was registered as a PIL by the order of the then Chief Justice dated December 22, 2010 on the basis of the report of V.K. Shukla, J. Chairman, Medical Reimbursement Committee.
On December 21, it was pointed out by Ajay Prakash Paul, State Law Officer, that in compliance of directions issued by the Supreme Court vide orders dated October 24, 2018 and April 30, 2019 in Contempt Petition (C) No. 425-426 of 2015, titled as Justice V.S. Dave, President, the Association of Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts v. Kusumjit Sidhu and others, the State Government has issued Government Order dated September 24, 2019 granting same medical benefits to retired Chief Justices/Judges as are available to sitting Chief Justices/Judges of the High Court.
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The Division Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Piyush Agrawal considered the aforesaid fact and observed that nothing survives in the PIL. “The same is, accordingly, dismissed as infructuous.”
It is pertinent to note that the contempt petition was filed by Justice V.S. Dave, president of the Association of Retired Judges in the Supreme Court. On which the Supreme Court had given directions to the state government. After this order, the Uttar Pradesh government also issued a mandate.