A 101-year-old man who first applied for the Swatantrata Sainik Samman pension (also known as the freedom fighter’s pension) in 1981 was granted it by the Orissa high court on Tuesday. The court ruled that the government’s allegation that he manipulated the electoral rolls to increase his age by 10 years was a presumption.
According to Justice Sashikanta Mishra, the administration claimed that Brahmanand Jena had aged up on the voters’ list by ten years in order to receive pension benefits under the program, but “not a shred of paper” was presented to the court to support the aforementioned position.
Justice Mishra quoted, “Bereft of even a semblance of an inquiry, the conclusion drawn by the authority is nothing but a presumption. Even otherwise, it would be too farfetched to impute such conduct to an old person. This court has on more than one occasion reiterated the view that it is the solemn duty of the State to honour the freedom fighters for the sacrifices made by them to attain freedom from colonial rule and care must be taken to ensure that the genuine claims are not thrown out on trivial grounds.”
Citing his involvement in the Quit India Movement of 1942, Jena of the Nayagarh district had submitted an application for the pension in February 1981. He applied straight to the state’s Finance Department in July 1989 after the Ministry of Home Affairs sent his case to the Odisha government in May 1984.
The Odisha government required that freedom fighters must have registered for pensions before August 27, 1990, and that they must have been at least 18 years old by 1942, meaning they should have been born before 1924. This requirement meant that his appeal went unanswered until October 9, 2002.
Two independence fighters, Khali Pradhan and Manguli Parida, provided testimonials to Jena stating that he had “remained underground for more than one year during 1942-43” as a result of his involvement in the Quit India Movement. Their signatures were confirmed to be genuine by the District Treasury Officer in Nayagarh.