I am a regular follower of your Chronicle
since a long time for the simple reason
that latest updates and commentaries
become available in the same very quickly.
Many pensioners share their
anxiety, frustrations and apprehensions in your Chronicle relating to
the delay in Court proceedings. There is nothing unusual in such delays,
because of large pile of cases every Court in India is made to examine,
lethargy of some judges as well as dilatory tactics resorted to by
Advocates. The poor clients have to bear then in silence.
There
are three important litigants involved in the pension case - Mr.
Asthana supported by AIRIEF, Mr. Sridharan representing the Federation
and the Panchakula Unit of AIRIEF, on whose behalf Mr. B. R. Mehta
writes to the Chronicle. Recently Mr. M. Srinivasa Murthy jumped into
the arena threatening to intervene with his I. A. Then he thought of
becoming a mediator
between the three above named litigants so that all
of them unite and fight the cause of LIC Pensioners. Very noble
intention indeed. Unfortunately, there were no takers except Mr. B. R.
Mehta, a perennial Asthana back biter. He made MSM as his Case Manager.
Since then Mr. Murthy has been flying from Hyderabad to Delhi and back.
The only work he is able to do is send reports to the Pensioners
Chronicle with his personal view points, mostly derogating Asthanaji and
his lawyers and in the process demoralising the spirit and confidence
of thousands of LIC Pensioners.
I am practicing
as a lawyer after my retirement from service in LIC and from my
experience I can assure my fellow pensioners that no harm is going to
happen if some Advocate errs in his presentations to the Court. It can
definitely be corrected subsequently. If Mr. Murthy feels that
Asthanaji's lawyer erred Panchakula unit's Advocate will have ample
opportunity to say what is right to convince the Court. Unfortunately,
Mr. MSM make us feel that only Asthanaji and his lawyer matter and
others have no role to play except find faults in whatever Asthanaji's
lawyers do and say.
But in a way MSM is right
in saying that only Asthanaji and his lawyers' arguments matter in the
case. Chandigarh High Court judgement is a verbatim quote of the Jaipur
case judgement and Mr. Sridharan's case is also as much dependant on
Justice Bhandari's judgement. If Asthanji loses his case, neither
Panchakula Unit not Sidharan's Federation can ever dream of winning
their cases. So therefore Mr. Murthy should see the writing on the wall and confine his role to just reporting. The learned lawyers would be
able to counter the tricky contentions of Mr. Sanghvi's arguments and
GOI affidavit and let us keep our trust on them.
