Akkshadha Srivastav
Published on: 14 August 2022 at 17:33 IST
The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea to the Union of India and the government of Madhya Pradesh to fettle the five years of office of MPs and MLAs as an eligibility period to attain lifetime pension and imposed an auxiliary mulct of Rs 10,000/- to be disbursed.
The court order expounding the same reads:
“…The grievance of the petitioner is that there should be a minimum qualifying period in the relevant Rules and Regulations for the grant of pension to Member of Parliament (M.P.) and Member of the Legislative Assembly (M.L.A.) at par with the civil servants and judges of the High Court and Supreme Court. According to the petitioner, after the election, MPs and MLAs, become entitled to a pension without serving even for a day.”
“They are also entitled to multiple pensions which are alien in the service jurisprudence. Since they are lawmakers, therefore, they have made provisions under the Act & Rules for getting the pension without rendering the service.”
“The main concern of the petitioner is that the taxpayers’ money is being paid to those M.Ps. and M.L.As. who have not rendered any services to the public or nation after their election and getting the pension only by virtue of their election, therefore, the aforesaid provisions are unconstitutional and liable to be struck down…”
A bench of Justices Vivek Rusia and Amar Nath Kesharwani ruled that the PIL is devoid of any substance and, ergo, filed without proper research:
“If any advocate approaches the High Court by way of Public Interest Litigation then it is expected that proper research on the subject ought to have been done. The petitioner being an advocate ought to have done research before filing such type of petition. All the issues raised in this petition have already been considered by this Court as well as by the Apex Court.”
Taking into account the above, it dismissed the writ petition and charged an additional cost of Rs 10.000/- to be paid by the petitioner in due to the Madhya Pradesh State Legal Aid Services Authority.