94-yr-old moves SC, seeks Rs 25 cr compensation for 'lifetime of misery' due to Emergency

Highlighting the dark days of Emergency, a 94-year-old widow has moved the Supreme Court seeking a compensation of Rs 25 crores for the lifetime of 'utter misery and anguish' that she and her family have undergone owing to the horrors of the period.

According to the petitioner, the then government had targetted her husband and her with 'unjustifiable and arbitrary detention orders' causing them to flee the country. "His business was shut down, assets and valuables including immovable property was seized and appropriated. The Petitioner's husband succumbed to the pressure and died. Since then the Petitioner has been single-handedly facing all proceedings initiated against her husband during the Emergency period, which were arbitrarily pursued," read the petition. 

The plea revealed that in December 2014, proceedings her husband were finally quashed however, the assets and business that was seized from her husband back during the Emergency were yet to be redistributed to her family. She alleged that these, however, had been siphoned off instead.

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"Needless to say, that the valuable movable properties have been siphoned away and illegally appropriated by many government authorities and private persons during the time of emergency. Ironically, the Petitioner's son had the most unpleasant experience and was shocked to see a few of the stolen pieces of his mother's jewelry up for sale in New Delhi," it added. 

Recalling the hardships that she went through during the Emergency at the hands of the government, the 94-year-old has expressed the desire of reaching 'closure' with regards to the decades-long trauma that she has faced. The matter will be brought up for hearing on December 7 before Justice SK Kaul.

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(PTI Image)