HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No.8429 OF 2011 ORDER: This writ petition is instituted by Sri K. Satyanarayana who is currently residing at Kalvapalli village of Garidepally Mandal, Nalgonda District for declaring the action of the respondents 1 and 2 in not sanctioning him Swathanthra Sainik Samman Pension as illegal. 2. The petitioner hails from Nalgonda District. He has participated in the freedom struggle launched in the erstwhile Hyderabad State during the period of 1947-48. The petitioner claimed to have worked at Jaggaipet border camp which was under the control of Sri D. Narasaiah. He has participated in destruction of Rajakars’ camps and hoisted national flag in and around his native village. He therefore sought for sanction of Swathanthra Sainik Samman Pension. On behalf of the Union of India, the Under Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs has filed a detailed counter affidavit in the matter. It is stated that the claims of the persons who have applied for pension pertaining to border camps involved in Hyderabad liberation movement were not accepted initially, as they did not fulfill the eligibility criteria under the Swathanthra Sainik Samman Pension Scheme. Hence the Central Government constituted a special screening committee in 1983 under the Chairmanship of Sri S. Govind Bhai Shroff to scrutinize applications of persons who claimed to have suffered in the border camps during the Hyderabad liberation movement. The special screening committee seems to have undertaken an extensive tour of the region forming part of the former Hyderabad State to get complete information as to the various camps from which the arms struggle was waged during those times. Accordingly, a list of 98 camps including 41 in Andhra Pradesh State, 37 in Maharashtra and 20 in Karnataka State, along with the names of camp in-charges was prepared. As against an estimated number of about 11,000 participants of the Hyderabad liberation movement, the special screening committee had made recommendations for about 7,000 cases, to whom pension was already sanctioned. It was further pointed out that in the year 1996, the committee was reconstituted under the Chairmanship of Sri N. Giri Prasad, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and half way through the task, the Chairman expired and in his place, Sri Ch. Rajeswara Rao, an Honourable Member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly was chosen as the Chairman. Under the Chairmanship of Sri Ch. Rajeswara Rao, a further 18 border camps list was added to the list of 98 camps prepared earlier. The committee headed by Sri Ch. Rajeswara Rao, scrutinized all the old as well as new cases and recommended about 13,500 cases for grant of pension between April 1997 to May 1998. The genuineness of the claims were therefore got to be verified by the State Government concerned. In paragraph (16) of the counter affidavit, it is specifically stated that though the petitioner was not found initially eligible for grant of Swathanthra Sainik Samman Pension as the border camp mentioned in his application did not appear in the list of border camps verified earlier, but however, due to subsequent events referred to supra, additional camps were recognized and the case of the petitioner is covered by the decision concerning the recognition of the additional border camps and hence, sanction of pension to him will be decided on receipt of the re-verification report from the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. In view of these statements found mentioned in the affidavit filed by the Under Secretary to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which have been once again reiterated by Mrs. K. Rajitha, learned additional standing counsel, entire question now boils down to this, namely the third respondent-State Government of Andhra Pradesh has to submit the re-verification report with reference to the writ petitioner to the first respondent-Ministry of Home Affairs of the Union Government so as to enable the latter to take a decision for sanction of pension in favour of the petitioner. 3. I therefore consider it appropriate to direct the third respondent to take all such steps that are necessary to submit the re-verification report with reference to the petitioner’s case within a maximum period of two months from today. Upon receipt of re-verification report from the State Government, the first respondent shall take appropriate decision for sanctioning the pension in favour of the petitioner within a further period of two months thereafter. 4. This writ petition is thus disposed of. No costs ________________________________ Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao 05-08-2011 SP HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No.8429 OF 2011 05-08-2011 SP