Delhi High Court frowns upon compensation for kin of suicide victim, asks govt 'are you trying to set trend?'

New Delhi: The Delhi High High Court on Tuesday frowned upon the Delhi government’s decision to compensate the family of an ex-Armyman who committed suicide during the OROP agitation, saying “you are setting a trend — commit suicide and get Rs one crore compensation”. The court’s remark came over the decision conferring the status of martyr on the ex-Armyman, who allegedly killed himself by consuming poison over the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) issue in November last year, and giving Rs one crore financial aid and a job to his family. [caption id=“attachment_4184517” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Delhi High Court. PTI[/caption] “Imagine you are setting a trend, commit suicide and get Rs one crore compensation. And, when you are giving Rs one crore compensation to his family, where is the question of compensatory employment,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said. The court made the observation while rejecting two public interest litigations against the Delhi government’s decision to accord martyr status to Ram Kishan Grewal. It said the petitions were premature and not maintainable at this stage as the LG was yet to take decision on it. The court also dismissed another PIL which opposed the city government’s decision to declare as martyr Rajasthan based politician-cum-farmer Gajendra Singh Kalyanwat, who had allegedly hanged himself during an anti-land bill rally by the AAP at Jantar Mantar on 22 April, 2015. The court said the petition was devoid of merit and the petitioner was unable to place the legal explanation of the term “martyr”.