Chennai: Coming to the rescue of a nonagenarian, whose old age pension was suddenly stopped by authorities citing a new amendment to Madras Old Age Pension Rules and a GO, the Madras high court has directed the authorities to continue to pay the pension to her.
As per the amendment, a person claiming pension should be a destitute and must belong to below poverty line family. Allowing the appeal filed by 91-year-old R. Senbakam, a Division Bench comprising Justices Satish K. Agnihotri and M. Venugopal set aside an order of a single judge, which dismissed her petition. The petition challenged an order of special tahsildar, Nagapattinam, stopping old age pension to her.
The Bench directed authorities to continue to pay old age pension to the appellant under Indira Gandhi Old Age Pension Scheme from October 2014 onwards. The arrears in this regard should be paid to appellant within six weeks.
According to Senbakam, the Special Tahsildar’s act in stopping pension from October 2014 without any notice, enquiry or court order was not tenable. It was arbitrary because following her writ petition in 2009, Nagapattinam Collector had sanctioned old age monthly pension to her with effect from November 2007 throughout her life.
Citing the new amendment to the Madras Old Age Pension Rules and a G.O, the authorities contended that Senbakam was supported by her son and daughter, who were well to do and economically sound. Therefore, she was not a destitute to claim old age pension.
Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Venugopal said it cannot be lost sight of that even though the appellant has not challenged the amendment made to Rule 5 of the Madras Old Age Pension Rules as well as the G.O dated April 17, 2015, yet, this court is of the considered view that when the order passed by this court in her petition filed in 2009 was in her favour and the same has become final and binding between the parties.
Apart from that, the impugned order of Special Tahsildar stopping payment of pension to her from October 2014 was without prior notice or hearing objections/representation of the appellant. It was illegal.
