RAIPUR: In a setback to the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh government, the High Court on Tuesday declared the state's decision to scrap the pension scheme for the detainees under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the 1975-77 Emergency period, as against the rules and nullified it.
"A division bench headed by the Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice Narendra Vyas after hearing the arguments gave the order through video conferencing, citing the decision of the state government as arbitrary, against the rules and had annulled it. The court ordered for the continuation of the pension and also release the arrears of the MISA pensioners," Upendranath Awasthi, senior counsel for the petitioners, told The New Indian Express.
Around 70 MISA pensioners had filed a petition in the High Court challenging the decision of the state government to scrap the pension rules in 2019.
"We will now file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court in the given case," said Satish Chandra Verma, Advocate General of the state, after the High Court order.
After the formation of the Congress government in Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had instructed that there be a physical verification of all beneficiaries of MISA pensions, following which all commissioners and the district collectors had stopped the pensions from February 1, 2019.
Justifying the government's decision, CM Baghel had then asserted that such people (pensioners) cannot be called freedom fighters.
The scheme for MISA detainees was launched by the Raman Singh government in 2008. "The Court's decision on restoration of the MISA pension scheme is a victory of the democracy," the former BJP CM said.
Under the pension scheme, the people who remained in jail under MISA for three months were entitled to Rs 10000 per month, those imprisoned for six months were given Rs 15000 a month and those jailed for over six months Rs 25000.