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| HC directs to increase disability pension | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 18: A high court division bench of Chief Justice N Paul Vasnthakumar and Justice Tashi Rabstan today directed to enhance pension for the disabled persons from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per month from April 1, 2016.
The court directive came in letter-turned-PIL, seeking enhancement of pension to handicapped persons, widows and old age persons as they were getting less pension as compared to the pension which they were getting in other states. After hearing the two sides, the bench said the right to life is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India which provides for life with a minimum decency like food, shelter, health and other minimum amenities of life. By paying a petty amount of Rs 500 per month, one cannot live a decent life and bearing in mind the said guaranteed right to the marginalized section of the society who are unable to sustain themselves and are already identified by the social welfare department are to be given enhanced pension as compared to the price index, the court observed.
The bench expressed concern over the stand taken by finance department which said enhancement of pension was a policy issue and the state cabinet had not yet taken any decision and no budgetary provision had been made for enhancing the pension and due to the poor financial condition of the state, it was not possible to enhance the pension and the state needed to wait for either liberal funding from the central government or the resource position to improve and thereafter only decision for enhancing the pension rates could be taken.
The bench, after noticing the delaying tactics of finance department, observed that this court was constrained to consider pitiable condition of the old aged pensioners, widow pensioners and handicapped persons, who were given pension under Integrated Social Security Scheme (ISSS) and National Social Assistance Programme, all of whom were being paid Rs 500 per month as pension by way of social assistance from 1994 and 1995 respectively. The sum of Rs 500 was fixed more than 20 years back. The money value got diminished considerably during this time. In other states, the minimum pension was increased to Rs 1,000 per month and the same was not disputed. The social welfare department, which was looking after the social security schemes of the marginalized clause of persons, had recommended an increase in the pension of the above two categories to Rs 1,000 per month and submitted the proposal to the planning and development department on May 2, 2014 and prayed for its concurrence. The proposal was kept pending and not considered in the budget for 2015-16. Even in the budgetary provisions for 2016-17, no steps had been taken for allocation of funds for enhancing pension to the really deserving persons. The total numbers of pensioners, according to respondents, comes to 5,72,948 persons.
The bench directed that the enhanced pension would be paid with effect from April 1, 2016 and the order to that effect be passed within four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
"It is made clear that in case any of the beneficiaries are not receiving the said amount of pension from the respondents, they are at liberty to approach District Legal Services Authority/Tehsil Legal Service Authority and the said authorities on receipt of such application from the beneficiary shall take up the matter with the concerned authorities of the government and ensure that pensioner(s) receives pension in time. The beneficiaries are also granted liberty to file applications which are not considered by the concerned officers/officials, before the concerned Legal Services Authority and the Authority shall forward the same to this court along with its report for listing of such application before the appropriate Bench(s) for necessary orders," the bench said. (JNF) |
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