90 years old freedom fighter has been harassed by the Government of India, remarked the Supreme Court while dismissing a Special Leave Petition filed by the Central Government.



Nonagenarian Dev Narayan Mishra's application seeking pension to the freedom fighters under the Swatantra Sainik Samman Pension Scheme was dismissed by the Government in the year 2010. The single bench of the Delhi High Court, in 2015, allowed his writ petition and directed the Government to pay him pension under the SSSP Scheme. The Centre filed appeal before the Division bench which affirmed the Single bench order holding that Mishra fulfills the conditions stated in the SSSP Scheme for the grant of pension and that the court shall not adopt a hyper-technical approach while dealing with the case of freedom fighter and that the basic objective of the scheme is to honour and benefit the kith and kin of the freedom fighters.

While considering the SLP filed by the Government, the bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph said:

A 90 years old freedom fighter has been harassed by the Government of India and continues to do so by filing appeal belatedly after 190 days. We are surprised that such a matter should have been found fit to be filed in this Court. It is a sheer waste of judicial time.

The bench then dismissed the SLP with costs of Rs.10, 000 to be deposited with the Supreme Court Advocates' Welfare Fund. It will be open to the petitioners to recover amount from the person who has certified that this is a fit case of filing the petition, the bench added.

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