“which basically means also a right to receive state`s social security, including
social risk situations. The right to social security is a basic human right (which
pertains to the social, economic and cultural rights – the second generation of
human rights). Thus, the right to a state pension is among the basic human rights
and their implementation is one of the fundamental principles of the judicial
state. The right to social security is closely linked to the right to life, liberty and
security of a person, provided in the Article 3 of United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Restriction of the social rights, including restriction
of rights to the pension, may indirectly affect a person`s right to life.”
55.In further support of the relationship of pension and social security, Justice D Y
Chandrachud of the Bombay High Court held in the landmark case of Manager,
Solapur Municipal Corporation and Others v. Devidas Mahadev Potdar and Others,
Bombay High Court (10 December, 2008). that pension is a vital aspect of social
security and that the right to receive it constitutes a right to life under Article 21 of
the Indian constitution which is pari material with Article 4 of the UDHR and in
addition opined as follows:
''Deprive a pensioner of the payment and you deprive him or her of the right
to life. Delayed pensionary payments place a pensioner in a position of
uncertainty and dependence which impinges on the quality of life under
Article 21, and the right to dignified existence of the aged,''
In Further examination of the right to medical care and its dependence on financial
security, Z. Vorslava has this to say:
“The right to receive state pension are also provided by the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states that the right to health has to
be understood as a right to such conditions, services and goods that are necessary
to obtain the highest level of health protection.”
56. The decided cases above further strengthen the court’s opinion of the interrelationship between denial of pension on one hand and the attendant implication
on the rights to health, dignity and life. The allegation of the violation of the right to
life in the instant case does not necessarily entail the actual loss of life or merely
physical act of breathing, neither does it connote mere animal existence or
continued drudgery through life. It has a wider meaning which includes right to live
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