BALDEV PARSAD ARYA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these writ petitions, petitioners Seek the benefit of Swatantarta Sainik Samman Pension Scheme (carlier known as Freedom Fighters Pension Scheme. 1972)-and referred hereinafter as the Scheme. Their main plea is that the pension under the scheme ought to be granted with effect from 1.8.1980.

(2.) These petitioners assert that they or their predecessors participated in the Aryasamaj Movement of 1938-39 against the Government of the then Nizam of Hyderabad and consequently suffered imprisonment and thus they are entitled to the grant of pension under the Swatantarta Sainik Samman Pension Scheme. 1980 (same as 'the Scheme'). They are also aggrieved by the non-consideration or the rejection of the applications on the. ground that the applications were filed after 30.6.1986. It is unnecessary for us to refer and consider the various contentions raised in the writ petitions, as the questions are fully covered by the authoritative pronouncement of the Supreme Court in the decision rendered in Mukund Lal Bhandari & Others Vs. Union of India and others; JT 1993(3) SC 342 = AIR 1993 SC 2127.

(3.) According to the learned counsel for the petitioners, said decision is not conclusive when it says that the benefit of the scheme is available only from the date of the application filed by a claimant seeking the pension. The learned counsel contended that irrespective of the date of the application, anligible claimant should be granted the benefit with effect from 1.8.1980. when the scheme was brought into force. The learned counsel relied on two earlier decisions of the Supreme Court wherein the benefit was extended w.e.f. 1.8.1980 and argued that the subsequent decision in Mukund Lal Bhandari's case was by a Bench of two Judges, which cannot over-rule the earlier rulings.