Widowed daughter of freedom fighter entitled to his pension, says High Court

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 20

Nearly four decades after the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme came into force, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that a freedom fighter’s widowed daughter is also entitled to the benefit after the pensioner’s death.

A total of 10,483 freedom fighters across the country were getting pension under the scheme as on November 30, 2018, and their number is likely to increase once the judgment’s benefit is passed on to eligible beneficiaries.

The ruling by Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa came in a descendant’s case wherein a claim was rejected on the ground that the widowed or divorced daughter of a freedom fighter was not entitled to any kind of benefit after the death of the pensioner or spouse.

Justice Dhindsa observed that the court was of the considered view that the impugned order dated December 14, 2016, in petitioner Kamlesh’s case could not be sustained as it was in direct conflict with the view taken by a Division Bench in an appeal decided in July 2016.

Passing on the benefit to a freedom fighter’s divorced daughter, the Bench of Justice Mahesh Grover and Justice Shekher Dhawan, among other things, had asserted that special family pension and Samman Pension Scheme were intended to honour the valour of “uniformed people” who laid down their lives or suffered for the cause of the country.

“We would, thus, not place any demeaning interpretation on the scheme to deprive the unsung heroes of the country of benefits meant to ensure a life of dignity to their dependants. We direct that the benefit of the scheme shall be admissible to the divorced daughter as well,” the Bench had added.

Relying in the judgment, Justice Dhindsa asserted that the reasoning applied by the Division Bench in the divorced daughter’s favour would squarely apply even to a widowed daughter.

Allowing the petition, Justice Dhindsa directed the authorities to release to the petitioner the benefits admissible under the pension scheme, along with arrears. For the purpose, the Bench set a two-month deadline.

Seeking the release of financial assistance under the scheme, Kamlesh of Bhiwani had earlier told the Bench that the benefit was initially granted to her freedom fighter father Data Ram, who received a Praman Patra in January 1962.

The benefit was transferred in her mother’s name upon his demise in 1992, but her mother expired in 2008. The Bench was also told that the petitioner had lost her husband in 2007 during her mother’s lifetime and, as such, she became dependent on her.