Saturday, December 24, 2011

Give pay to kin of 1971 PoWs: High court to govt

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Friday directed the Centre to consider 1971 prisoners of war languishing in Pakistani jail on duty, pay full salaries to their families and give them retirement benefits within three months with adequate compensation.

The court was hearing a petition filed in 1999 by late Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Arora, who had sought directions from the court for the centre for the PoWs' release. But the court said the POWs' families will have to return the compensation once they are released and pulled up the Centre for not making 'any sincere moves' to get them released.

It directed the Centre to file a petition in the International Court of Justice for their release. The court said the Centre had been "guilty of inaction and not protecting rights of citizens, who defend the country's boundaries" by not approaching the ICJ so far. It had fined the defence ministry Rs 10,000 twice for not filing appropriate reply in the case for over 10 years despite repeated notices in January 2010.

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