📍नई दिल्ली | 3 months ago
Finally justice to 1965 War Veteran: Pulling the Indian Army for its unnecessary litigation, the Punjab and Haryana High court had directed Centre to pay an additional 15 percent on the arrears of war injury pension to an army captain decorated with the Veer chakra in the 1965 Indo- Pak war.
A bench of Justices Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Meenakshi Mehta expressed their shock that a war veteran was dragged into an unnecessary litigation for years and asked Indian army to pay an additional 15 percent on the arrears of war injury to captain Reet M P Singh of 8 cavalry.
The bench also expressed surprise as to how the 2018 judgment passed by the AFT was being challenged and directed that additional interest be recovered from the officers responsible for delaying the payment to the war hero.
CASE OF CAPTAIN SINGH
Captain singh had 80 disability and lost an eye in the 1965 war but had not been granted enhanced benefits by broad-banding of disability percentage in accordance with a policy introduced by the Centre with effect from 1996.
Disability Pension: Over 3000 appeals by MoD pending in Supreme Court and High Court against death and disability benefits
This was subsequently challenged
Ministry of Defence had earlier granted enhanced benefits only to invalidation cases post-1996, denying them to pre-1996 cases. Additionally, those who were released with disability pension or war injury pension upon the completion of their term, voluntary retirement or superannuation were also refused these benefits.
Supreme Court had struck down the cut-off date and quashed the distinction based on the manner of exit from service and had directed the payment of benefits with arrears from 1996 with 8 per cent interest to all affected disabled retired personnel.
TOP COURT SLAPPED FINE ON CENTRE FOR UNNECESSARY LITIGATION
Last month, top court had also slapped penalty of Rs 50,000 on the Union government and the Indian Army for forcing a soldier’s widow into unnecessary litigation. She had to fight for years to secure a family pension after her husband, Naik Inderjeet Singh, died during a counter terrorism patrol in Jammu and Kashmir.
SUCH CASES IMPACT MORALE OF ARMED FORCES
A bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan while criticising the Union government for dragging armed forces personnel and their families to the top court over disputes related to pensions highlighted the adverse impact of such litigation on morale within the armed forces.
CENTRE SHOULD COME OUT WITH POLICY
Asking the Centre to come out with a policy to avoid such litigation stressed that personnel who have served the nation should not be subjected to unnecessary legal battles and said, “As it is, there are only a few people willing to serve in the armed forces.”
“Why should the Union drag such people to this court? They have served the Union after all. Day in and day out, these matters are brought here,” the bench observed.