PIL in Supreme Court seeking hike in family pension to same level as regular service pension

Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, April 29

The Supreme Court on Monday took up a public interest litigation seeking enhancement of family pension paid to dependents of deceased armed forces personnel to the same level as the regular service pension applicable to such personnel. Family pension is about 40 per cent lower than the service pension.

Invoking jurisdiction under Article 32 and Article 142 of the Constitution, a writ petition has been filed by the Family Pensioners Welfare Samiti, seeking directions to the Central Government to revisit and reframe the Pension Regulations applicable to the Army, Navy and Air Force so as to ensure that the widows or dependent children are given ordinary family pension at the same rate as service pension payable to the service personnel.

The Apex Court’s Bench comprising Chief Justice Dr DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra today issued notices to the Centre and the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) to file their reply by July 15.

As per the relevant rules currently applicable, defence personnel are granted service pension equivalent to 50 per cent of the last drawn pay. In the event of the individual’s death, the surviving wife or dependent children are granted ordinary family pension equivalent to 30 per cent of the last drawn pay.

After the death of a soldier, the widow or dependent is granted family pension so that she can support all members of the deceased soldier’s family who were dependent on him during his lifetime. However, such drastic reduction in pension makes it extremely difficult for the survivors to meet the ever increasing cost of living,” the petition averred

“This writ petition is, therefore, directed against the arbitrary and iniquitous pension policy of the government which infringes upon the rights of the widows and dependent children of the deceased service personnel under Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution,” Col Indra Sen Singh (retd), counsel in the case, said.

Presently, there are approximately 24 lakh ex-servicemen getting service pension and about 6.50 lakh family pensioners. Out of this about 80 per cent are in the category of personnel below officer rank (PBOR)

“PBOR retire at ages ranging from 35 to 48 years and at these age they all have numerous unfulfilled commitments like children’s education, children’s marriage, etc. At this young age, if a woman is widowed and left with a meagre pension of just 30 percent of her husband’s last drawn pay, it becomes extremely difficult for her to manage the family finances and bring up the children,” Col Singh said.

The impugned policy of drastic reduction in the rate of ordinary family pension paid to widows is also contrary to the spirit of the Constitution enshrined in Article 39 (a) of Directive Principles of State Policy, which require that the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing adequate means of livelihood for men and women equally, it was further argued.

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