THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA. W.P. No. 7597 of 2008 Oral order: The petitioners are residents of Korlakota village in Amadalavalasa Mandal of Srikakulam District. They state that the Government of Andhra Pradesh through their Rural Development Department under “Indiramma Pathakam” has introduced a pension scheme called “Social Security Pension”, for physically challenged persons, widows and old people. They state after elaborate enquiry, they were identiﬁed and selected for the pension, and in fact, were paid old age pension of Rs. 200/- per month from May, 2007 to December, 2007. However, from the month of January, 2008, they are not being paid the pension by the respondents. They state that they made representation dated 04.03.2008 requesting them to pay the pension, but as no orders thereon have been passed, they ﬁled the present writ petition questioning the action of the respondents, in not paying the pension, as illegal and arbitrary, and inter alia, prayed for the following relief: (a) Call for the records relating to and connected with the non- payment of the pension to the petitioners by the respondents declaring the same as arbitrary, illegal and unwarranted; (b) Direct the respondents to forthwith pay the pension to the petitioners w.e.f. January, 2008 with all consequential beneﬁts as the petitioners are identiﬁed as deserving to receive pension under Social Welfare Pension Scheme under Indiramma Yojana Pathakam and pass such other and further order or orders as the Hon’ble Court deems fit and proper in the circumstances of the case. Respondent No.4, namely the Mandal Parishad Development Oﬃcer ﬁled counter. While admitting that the petitioners were granted old age pension and were paid an amount of Rs.200/- per month from May, 2007 to December, 2007. When it was brought to the notice of respondent No.2, namely the District Collector, Srikakulam by one Sri Sanapala Laxminaidu of Korlakota village by way of a complaint that ineligible persons were granted old age pension, he issued directions to the Project Director, D.R.D.A., Srikakulam to conduct local enquiry and report about the genuineness of the old age pensions sanctioned. The Project Director, D.R.D.A. in turn directed respondent No.4 to constitute an Enquiry Committee, and in pursuance of such directions, respondent No.4 vide proceedings dated 04.01.2008 constituted a Committee, consisting of the Tahsildar, Amadalavalasa, MPDO, MPP, Amadalavalasa, EORD, Amadalavalasa, Revenue Inspector, Amadalavalasa, Secretary, Gram Panchayat, Korlakota, Amadalavalasa and Village Admnistrative Oﬃcer, Korlakota, Amadalavalasa, for conducting enquiry into allegations of ineligibility of the persons who were selected and granted old age pension. The said Committee conducted an enquiry on 07.02.2008, and during the course of enquiry, they veriﬁed the ration cards, election cards and voters list available with them to decide the eligibility as per the guidelines issued by the government in G.O. Ms. No. 83, dated 27.03.2006, which provided for grant of diﬀerent types of pension on the basis of the eligibility criteria ﬁxed in guideline Nos. 5.1 and 5.2, and submitted a report to the Project Director, DRDA, stating that the petitioners and 82 other persons ere found to be ineligible for grant of pension, and accordingly, their names were deleted from the sanctioned list. Since the petitioners were found to be not eligible for grant of old age pension under the Indiramma Pensions for persons under BPL, old age, disabled, widow and physically handicapped, and since they got sanctioned the pension by misrepresenting, the respondents cancelled the pension granted to them, and no exception can be taken thereto. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Revenue for the respondents. The contention of the petitioners that since the respondents after due enquiry selected and granted them old age pension, they are not entitled to cancel the same, cannot be accepted. When it was brought to the notice of the District Collector that ineligible persons were sanctioned and granted old age pension, he ordered the Project Director, DRDA to conduct an enquiry and submit his report. The Project Director, DRDA in turn directed respondent No.4 to constitute a Committee for conducting an enquiry into the genuineness of the old age pensions sanctioned. As can be seen from the counter ﬁled by the respondents, the Committee conducted the enquiry, by verifying the ration cards, election cards and voters list and also basing on the criteria ﬁxed in Guideline Nos. 5.1 and 5.2 of G.O. Ms. No. 83, dated 27.03.2006. As per the said guidelines, old age pension, weavers pension, widow pension and disabled pension, were to be granted taking into consideration several factors, such as, the proposed beneﬁciary shall be from BPL family, he/she shall be a local resident of the district, he/she is not covered under any other pension scheme; old age persons, both male and female, who are 65 years of age or above, and are destitute with little or no means of subsistence and no family or relative to depend upon, widows irrespective of age limit, and disabled person having a minimum of 40% disability and are above 18 years of age. The Committee, which conducted the enquiry applying the above criteria, found that petitioner Nos. 9, 18, 19, 34, 37, 38, 40, 41, 47, 50, 51 and 52 are below the age of 65 years; petitioner Nos. 1, 2, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 39, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48 and 49 are not below the poverty line and that one or other of their children are employed; petitioner Nos. 4, 16 and 23 are not widows; petitioner Nos. 5 and 50 are pink card holders; petitioner No. 17 is an unmarried lady; petitioner No. 7 was newly proposed; and in the case of petitioner Nos. 3 and 14, no proof as to their physically handicapped status was produced. In fact, the report discloses that apart from the petitioners, the Committee found that several other persons were also ineligible for grant of old age pensions, and accordingly deleted their names from the sanctioned list. Since the petitioners were found to be ineligible to be granted pension, no exception can be taken to the action of the respondents in deleting their names from the sanctioned list and not paying old age pension. There is no merit in the writ petition, and the same is accordingly dismissed. No costs. ________________ N.V. RAMANA, J. Dated: 8th September, 2008 KSR