Army widow gets enhanced pension after 11-yr struggle

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2

The Bench of the Armed Forced Tribunal (AFT) at Chandimandir (Panchkula) has come to the rescue of a 38-year-old widow who finally received the liberalised family pension recently after struggling for 11 years.

Terming the death of a soldier due to heatstroke at the International Border (IB) in Rajasthan as a battle casualty, the AFT granted the Liberalised Family Pension to the widow. The Liberalised Family Pension is the last pay drawn by the soldier.

The pension, which was being delayed by the Army authorities, was finally paid to the soldier’s widow, Suksham Sharma, recently after an execution application was filed before the AFT.

Deepak Sharma of Punjab’s Pathankot joined the Army in 2000. In 2010, he was serving in an operational area of Karanpur (Rajasthan) for the construction of permanent defences. He fell ill due to extreme heat conditions. Later, he died in a hospital on July 20, 2010. He was 30 years old at that time.

His death was declared a battle casualty vide an Army report dated July 21, 2010. However, it was classified as “physical casualty” by the record office and Suksham started getting the special family pension.

“Her claim for the Liberalised Family Pension, which is higher than the Special Family Pension, was forwarded to the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension) but was rejected in 2012,” submitted Rajesh Sehgal, counsel for Suksham.

Suksham then filed a petition before the AFT in 2014.

The Army authorities submitted before the AFT that as per Officer-In-Charge Records, the soldier was deployed in a modified field area and was in receipt of the same allowance. So, the case didn’t fall under the Liberalised Family Pension and the widow has been rightly granted the Special Family Pension, the Army authorities said.

The AFT observed that the unit of Deepak Sharma was located in Karanpur in the operational area and it was an IB. It also pointed out that the death was held to be a battle casualty by the Commanding Officer.