NARINDER SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner seeks quashing of the orders dated 26th March, 1990 and 23rd December, 1994 [Annexures P-4 and P-12] whereby the Freedom Fighter's pension, earlier granted to him, has been withdrawn. The petitioner also seeks a Mandamus for restoration of the said pension with all consequential benefits.

(2.) It was with a view to honour and respect those thousands of freedom fighters who participated in the freedom struggle of the Nation, that the Freedom Fighters' Pension Scheme, 1972 was introduced by the Union of India. This scheme was further liberalized in the year 1980 and was re-captioned as "Swantantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, 1982".

(3.) Asserting himself to be a Freedom Fighter who remained behind the bars in Central Jail, Lahore in the pre-independence era, that the petitioner also applied under the 1982 Scheme and sent two sets of the application to the Union of India and the Government of Punjab. In order to establish his claim as a bona-fide Freedom Fighter, the petitioner disclosed in the application that [i] he remained underground from 27th June, 1941 to 15th July, 1942 and [ii] underwent actual imprisonment in the Central Jail, Lahore from 21st August, 1942 to 20th October, 1943 for taking part in the "Individual Satyagrah" and "Quit India Movement". According to the petitioner, Dharam Singh son of Niranjan Singh resident of village Dhuman, District Patiala and Kartar Singh son of Jhanda Singh, resident of village Hadayatpura, PO Urdan, Tehsil Rajpura, District Patiala were also his co-prisoners from 21st August, 1942 to 20th October, 1943 and 20th October, 1942 to 20th October, 1943 respectively. The petitioner's co-prisoners had already been awarded Tamar Patras by the Central Government on their recognition as bona-fide Freedom Fighters. Besides this, the petitioner also appended the affidavits of three more co-prisoners, namely, [i] Naurang Singh, Ex.-MLA, Punjab, [ii] Sher Singh and [iii] Bhagat Singh. All of them had also allegedly suffered imprisonment along with the petitioner in the Central Jail, Lahore.