CAN LIC DISCRIMINATE? (From Chat-n-Chat)
Q.Sdsarma: Can LIC discriminate between petitioners and Pensioners being legal person and violate articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution? (Legal entity)
My opinion:
Constitutionally, LIC cannot discriminate. But when the petitioners do not constitute an entire group of similarly placed pensioners like an Association or Associations, the relief is normally awarded by the Court only in favour of those petitioners who filed the writ except in cases where the benefits are ordered to be paid in rem as happened in the Delhi HC judgment dt 30/1/2013. So when relief is provided only for the original petitioners in our cases, the only recourse available to the similarly placed pensioners is to join together and file an application in the Supreme Court for directions to LIC to make payment to all eligible pensioners.
For this reason, I had suggested that AIRIEF should get impleaded
in the Civil Appeals pending before the Supreme Court. Even now it is not too
late.
I am sure that legal experts involved in the cases apply their minds on the appropriate course of action.
C H Mahadevan