43 yrs on, HC orders relief for Major’s wife

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 19

Nearly 43 years after Major Kanwaljit Singh went missing in the 1971 war with Pakistan, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Punjab Government to pay compensation to his wife.

The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice PB Bajanthri directed the Punjab Government to compensate Jasbir Kaur by paying price equivalent to that of 10 acres of cultivable land. The price is to be determined at collector rate.

The Bench also criticised the 2010 rules, which envisaged payment of compensation at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre for 10 acres of cultivable land, instead of allotting 10 acres. The Bench satirically observed: “We may take judicial notice of the fact that one cannot purchase even one-eighth of an acre in any corner of Punjab for Rs 1 lakh.”

Major Kanwaljit Singh was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for displaying gallantry and initiative of high order on February 2, 1971, when a grenade attack by the Pakistani soldiers was repelled by him.

In response to his wife Jasbir Kaur’s request for allotment of cultivable land, Tarn Taran District Defence Services Welfare Officer Lt Col Gurinderjit Singh (retd) referred to a communication received from the Union Ministry of External Affairs to say “he is presumed to be held as a prisoner of war in Pakistan.”

In his affidavit, he claimed that the petitioner’s husband has not been declared dead by the army authorities and condolence letters by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, and the Army Headquarters to Jasbir Kaur were “demi-official”.