The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Centre and the State Bank of India in a plea filed by the widowed daughter-in-law of a freedom fighter seeking release of life-time arrears which were not paid to her deceased mother-in-law on account of discrepancies in pension records.
Justice Rekha Palli has issued notice to the Centre and State Bank of India. The plea has been filed by one Suman, the daughter-in-law of late Kalawati Devi and late Manohar Singh, who had served in the Indian National Army (NIA) popularly known as the Azad Hind Fauj. After the death of her father, her mother was getting pension since 1972 and the benefit of pension was extended w.r.f. 01.08.1980 to all freedom fighters under the scheme, Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme.
According to the plea, it was not disputed that after the death of Manohar Singh, his widow Kalawati Devi was getting the pension under the said scheme but in 2015, her pension was stopped without assigning any reason to her. Being illiterate and aged about 90 years, she kept waiting for it but nothing ever happened.
Justice Rekha Palli was of the prima-facie opinion that the unpaid pension be provided to the legal heirs. On June 10, the Home Ministry rejected the petitioner’s application to release the Life Time Arrears (LTA) of Kalawati Devi without assigning any reason.
According to the petition, Manohar Singh was the freedom fighter pursuant to his participation in the INA and was provided pension under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme since 15.08.1972 vide PPO No.4327/FF/CR, which was transferred to Kalawati Devi upon his death.
The petition avers that from February 2015, Kalawati Dev’s pension was suddenly stopped without assigning any reason and that too without any notice or prior intimation to her and whenever she had visited the concerned Bank, the officials concerned replied that pension has been stopped from the ministry but no such order passed by the Ministry was ever been given to her in this regard.
The petition further avers that, later it was found that the pension was withheld due to misprint of the name of the Late Manohar Singh (Freedom Fighter) on the Aadhaar Card as Monbor Singh name was printed on the Aadhaar Card instead of Manohar Singh. Even after rectifying the above mentioned error and submitting several representations before the Home Ministry, the arrears were not paid.
According to the petition, Kalawati Devi along with her son Basu Ram have expired and the surviving daughter-in law has sought the release of Life Time Arrears(LTA) of Kalawati Devi. The petition has been filed by Mahesh Tiwari and has been listed for further arguments on February 2, 2022.