The Rajasthan High Court has removed the names of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the Advocate General of the state government as parties to the petition filed in the matter of giving monthly pension to 508 former MLAs of the state. Also, the High Court has given four weeks time to the state government to submit its reply.
A division bench of Justice Pankaj Bhandari and Justice Anil Upman has given this order on a PIL filed by Milap Chand Dandiya. During the hearing, the Court presented an application on behalf of the petitioner seeking removal of the name of the Advocate General as a party in pursuance of the order. Accepting which the court said that the speaker of the assembly has also been made a party in the petition without any reason. In such a situation, the name of the chairman is also being removed.
On the other hand, advocates Yogesh Taylor and Vimal Chaudhary, on behalf of the petitioner, said that only one pension is given to former MLAs in Punjab. Whereas in Rajasthan, pension is given on the basis of the number of times a person has been an MLA. On this, the Advocate General said that in all the states except Punjab, pension is given according to the period.
When the Advocate General asked for time to submit a reply in this regard, the court gave four weeks time.
Pension is being given to 508 former MLAs
It has been said in the petition that according to the information received under the Right to Information, an amount of about 26 crores is being given as annual pension to 508 former MLAs in the state. About half a dozen former MLAs are being given pension amount of more than one lakh monthly. In this, there are more than hundred former MLAs who are being given monthly pension of more than 50 thousand. It was said in the petition that the State Government is giving the benefit of pension to the former MLAs by enacting the Perquisites and Pension Act, 1956 and the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly Members Pension Rules, 1977 for the officers and members of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.
While Article 195 of the Constitution and the 38th Account of the State List do not provide for the pension of former MLAs.
The petition said that pension is given to a person who retires after a certain age. Whereas MLAs do not retire, rather they are elected under the Representation of the People Act. The term of the legislators is fixed for five years. His pension is a burden on the common man, so he cannot be considered as a public servant. Therefore, the Act of 1956 and the Rules of 1977 should be declared illegal and repealed. Also, the amount given to former MLAs should be recovered.
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