Why Not Old Age Homes In Each District? SC Seeks Replies From States

Former union minister and senior advocate Ashwini Kumar won a huge victory when on his PIL, the Supreme Court today sought the response from the states with regard to the status of old age homes in every district for protection of rights of senior citizens.

“The issue is very important. We are looking into what all could be done for the elderly people. We have to look forward as to what could be done for elderly people. Centre may be wrong but the purpose of the plea is different. States should file their replies to the plea with regard to the status of old age homes in each district”, a bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

During the hearing Kumar, who was also the Law Minister during the erstwhile UPA government, said the Centre in its affidavit says it was giving Rs 200 as old age pension.

He termed it as not sufficient for elderly people when the GDP of the country was rising.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for Centre, said the Centre was coming up with new policy for senior citizens and that the pension amount of Rs 200 varied from state to state.

She said Rs 200 old age pension was not uniform across the country. While in Haryana it was Rs 1600 and in Puducherry it was Rs 2,000 for people between 60 and 79 years and Rs 3000 to those above 80. Anand said the Centre was not looking the plea as an adversarial litigation and trying to evolve an acceptable solution for the elderly people. Kumar said there should be nationwide uniformity in the pension as well as the criteria for availing benefits from social security schemes.

The bench then asked the ASG about the status of old age home in each district of the country.

She said that construction of such homes was a state subject and the Centre cannot do much in it. The bench then said it will be better if the states filed their replies to the plea and clarify their position.

The Centre had in May informed the court that it plans to replace the nearly two-decade old national policy on older persons with new norms that will fix uniform age across the sectors for a person to be declared as senior citizen.