89-Year-Old Odisha Woman To Get Pension With 26 Years’ Arrears After HC Intervention

Cuttack: In a major relief, an 89-year-old widow will finally receive provisional pension with arrears for 26 years following Orissa High Court’s intervention on her contempt plea.

A single judge bench of Justice V Narasingh directed the state transport authorities to pay the arrear with effect from 1996 together with the current provisional pension to Lalita Mohanty at her place of residence by September 19. Mohanty is now staying with her son at Manjur Road in Keonjhar district.

Justice Narasingh issued the order on Monday after chairman-cum-managing director of Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) Diptesh Kumar Pattanayak appeared before the court and gave an assurance that steps will be taken to pay provisional pension to the woman.

Provisional pension has been granted in favour of the widow with effect from January 1, 1996, the state counsel S N Pattnaik submitted.

“It is indeed unfortunate that an old widow aged about 89 years is still struggling to get a family pension, even after a lapse of almost more than nine-and-a-half years from the time the order was passed,” Justice Narasingh said while issuing the order.

Mohanty had filed a petition in the High Court in 2009 when she was denied a family pension after the death of her husband Bhimsen Mohanty, who was a traffic inspector of OSRTC at Baripada when he died on July 13, 1970.

The HC had allowed her petition on April 15, 2013, and directed that she is entitled to get a family pension as her husband was in service on December 12, 1963, when the provision of the Family Pension Scheme was available.

The woman filed the contempt petition on December 16, 2013, when the court order was not implemented. Justice Narasingh felt that the April 15, 2013 order had attained finality as a review petition filed by the state government on it was dismissed by the HC on August 30, 2019. Fixing September 21 for further consideration of the matter, the court directed the authorities to file compliance by then.