MADURAI
Expressing shock over the manner in which old age pension was abruptly stopped to a destitute woman for four years assuming that she was dead, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday called it a classic case of carelessness on the part of officials.
The court was hearing a petition filed by K. Sundarammal from Ramanathapuram district, who claimed that her old age pension was abruptly stopped by revenue officials in 2015. Even after a representation was made, the authorities failed to revive the pension, she complained.
In a counter affidavit filed by the Deputy Tahsildar of Kamuthi, it was said that a temporary computer operator had erroneously deleted her name, after which the pension was stopped. The error was not wilful, the counter said.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar observed that the facts should have been verified before the data was deleted. The reason that the name of the woman was wrongly deleted could not be accepted. Denial of welfare schemes due to the carelessness of officials could not be brushed aside easily, the court said.
It was said that the woman had, in fact, wanted to know the reason for stopping the pension through an RTI application. But the officials were said to have told her that she could make a fresh representation for pension.
The court questioned how such a statement could be made. This was failure on the part of officials. Expressing its anguish, the court said that it wanted to give a direction to ensure remedial action for the sufferings undergone by the woman for the past four years. It directed the officials to calculate the arrears of pension and pay the amount to her. The court also ordered a compensation of ₹50,000 to the petitioner.
When a request was made for a direction for payment of arrears alone, the court observed, “Let this be a model case.” The officials had acted recklessly failing a woman, who was dependent on the welfare scheme, the court said and adjourned the case for reporting compliance till July 24.
