Allahabad HC Rejects Lal Bihari's "Mritak" Petition for Rs. 25 Cr. in Lost Years Compensation

Lal Bihari "Mritak," who waged an 18-year struggle to become "living" in tax records, filed a petition with the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow division on Thursday, asking for Rs 25 crore in compensation from the government for the years he was formally "dead" and lost. The petitioner, a recipient of the Harvard University Ig Nobel Prize, was also fined Rs 10,000 by the court for wasting its time. "This court is clearly of the opinion that a mountain out of a molehill has been made by the petitioner only to claim compensation from the State Government for a wrong which was initially caused due to the greed on the part of his relatives," the justices Sangeeta Chandra and Manish Kumar wrote in their order.

"To rectify the revenue entries, the petitioner has not filed any FIR against his relatives, nor has he named them as parties in this petition or any other matter filed before a competent revenue court. The State Government never issued a declaration of the petitioner's death, and his family were the ones to submit a claim for succession under Section 34 of the UP Land Revenue Law, the bench said. Lal Bihari had filed the case, claiming that since he had been listed as "dead" in the tax records for 18 years, he had suffered and should be compensated.

Between 1975 and 1994, Lal Bihari, a farmer from the Azamgarh district, received an official "death" declaration. He battled for 18 years to demonstrate his survival. He changed his identity to "Mritak" and established Mritak Sangh, an organisation of "dead people," in order to draw attention to similar situations.