UNION OF INDIA Vs. LONAN BENJAMIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The point which arises for decision in both these Writ Appeals is whether the imprisonment in jail as under trial prisoner could be reckoned for computing the six months period of imprisonment for getting freedom fighters pension.

(2.) The undisputed facts are the following: - The first petitioner in O.P. No. 31246/99 is a freedom fighter. The other petitioners in that Original Petition and the petitioner in O.P. No.31395/99 are the widows of freedom fighters. All of them are getting freedom fighters pension / freedom fighters family pension from the State Government. When the Central Government declared that Punnapra Vayalar struggle was also part of the freedom struggle, they became eligible for the Central pension also. But their applications were not favourably considered because the imprisonment suffered by the concerned freedom fighters was as under trial prisoners and not as convicts. According to Central Government, even though they were freedom fighters in terms of the scheme and were charge sheeted by the police in connection with the freedom struggle, they are not eligible for pension as their cases ended in acquittal. They were only under trial prisoners. So, they are ineligible for pension, the Central Government contended.

(3.) The Scheme has been provided as Ext. P1 in O.P. No. 31246/1999. A freedom fighter who had suffered a minimum imprisonment of six months in the main land jails is eligible for pension. The relevant clause in the scheme given in Para.4(a) of Ext. P1 reads as follows: -