Hyderabad: Telangana high court has dismissed a writ petition seeking grant of arrears and dependent pension under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, 1980. The court ruled that no pension can be sanctioned after the death of a freedom fighter if it was not granted during their lifetime.Justice NV Shravan Kumar delivered the verdict while hearing a petition filed by the late freedom fighter More Rama Rao’s daughter, More Vijaya Laxmi, from Warangal district.Vijaya Laxmi claimed that neither Rama Rao nor her mother, More Sushila, were granted freedom fighter’s pension despite their applications. After their deaths, being unmarried and mentally ill, she applied for a family pension, which was still pending with the authorities.According to Vijaya Laxmi, her father was a freedom fighter who fought for the merger of the Nizam State into the Indian Union and applied for a pension in 1984. Around 20 years later, he got a response from the authorities asking him to submit relevant documents in April 2003. Even before his application was processed, he died in October 2003. Following this, Vijaya Laxmi’s mother Sushila applied for the family pension. However, she also passed away in 2016 before her application was processed.Subsequently, Vijaya Laxmi, being the sole heir, applied for pension and submitted representations to the authorities on two occasions in Sept 2016. As the same was not considered, she approached the high court seeking relief.Justice NV Shravan Kumar noted that although Rao applied for the pension in 1984, it was never sanctioned during his lifetime. Subsequent applications by his wife and later the petitioner were not eligible under the revised scheme.The court also noted that Rao declared “no eligible dependents” in official records. Further, in view of the 2014 guidelines, the court ruled that “no lifetime arrears or dependent pension shall be sanctioned to the spouse or daughter after the death of the freedom fighter” if the pension was not already approved, and dismissed Vijaya Laxmi’s petition.
