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Rambhau S/O Tulshiram Ghuge v. The State of Maharashtra and Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 324Decided 10 Apr 2018
Civil Appeal No. 3671 of 2018
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice Navin Sinha

Background

The appellant and several co-appellants (their SLPs were heard together in this consolidated batch) had been granted freedom fighters' pension by the Maharashtra government, which was later withdrawn on the ground that the pension had allegedly been obtained on the basis of forged documents. The Bombay High Court (Aurangabad Bench) upheld the withdrawal, prompting these appeals to the Supreme Court. A similarly situated group of pensioners had earlier obtained relief from the Supreme Court in 2013 on near-identical facts.

Decision Breakdown

The Court extended the same relief it had granted in its 2013 order to this batch of appellants, reasoning that given their advanced age and the hardship of losing even a small sustenance benefit at that stage of life, the High Court's judgment upholding withdrawal of the pension should be set aside. The Court restored the pensionary benefit but restricted it personally to the appellants (it would not pass to their legal heirs after their death), fixed token arrears, and expressly clarified that the ruling was based on the peculiar facts of the case and should not be treated as a precedent for other matters.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can show flexibility and grant humanitarian relief in welfare-pension disputes involving elderly beneficiaries, but such relief may be expressly confined to the facts of that case and withheld from being cited as a general precedent.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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