The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) for stopping the social security pensions of about 45,000 people, including the disabled, widows and the aged. The Court said the civic body’s pension scheme was a “complete eyewash”.
A Division Bench comprising Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva directed the EDMC to provide a list of the persons eligible for pension, the manner of their selection and details about those who actually received the pension and the time when they stopped getting it.
The Court was hearing a public interest writ petition moved by Social Jurist, a non-government organisation, claiming that the municipal body had stopped paying social security pensions without giving any reason. The petition said the denial of pension to the old and the disabled was a violation of their fundamental rights.
The Bench issued notices to the EDMC and impleaded the municipal corporations of North Delhi and South Delhi as respondents in the case, while seeking their replies by March 11, when the case will come up for further hearing.
The counsel appearing for EDMC told the Court that the civic body did not have sufficient funds for paying pensions. The EDMC had applied to the government for funds for continuing the scheme and had paid pensions till April 2013, said the counsel.
The petition contended that the EDMC’s action of stopping pensions was arbitrary, illegal and unjustified. “The destitute have been left in the lurch by the abrupt and arbitrary stoppage of stipend/pension... Many of them have been drawn to the brink of starvation,” it said.
