HC raps Punjab for apathy towards family of India-Pakistan war martyr

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, March 26

More than 50 years after Army man Mohinder Singh laid down his life during the India–Pakistan war leaving his family struggling for the transfer of an allotted plot’s ownership, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has condemned the state of Punjab and respondent-functionaries for inconsiderateness and lack of concern.

Deprecated in strongest terms

The prolonged gross insensitivity shown by the respondents to the family members of the deceased soldier who laid down his life fighting for the nation during the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971 is but required to be deprecated in the strongest terms. Division Bench

A Division Bench also made it clear that the state would forthwith make atonements and expiations for the gross apathy shown to the soldier’s surviving family by remitting Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the petitioner-brother for the “procrastinated delay and for its devaluing the eminent services of a soldier in the Indian Army”.

The Bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Kuldeep Tiwari also made it clear that any rigorous condition imposed against the allottee barring him to mortgage or alienate the allotted land was also oppressive and also contrary to the complete rights as owner vested in him.

The Bench asserted: “The prolonged gross insensitivity and apathy evidently shown by the respondents concerned to the family members of the deceased soldier, who laid down his life fighting for the nation during the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971 is but required to be deprecated in the strongest terms.”

Referring to the state counsel’s submission that there was no policy in prevalence at the relevant time when the petitioner’s brother laid down his life fighting for the nation, the Bench asserted it was neither a sufficient cause, nor a valid ground for the respondents concerned not to make a special grant as a measure of honour to the services to the country by a soldier who valiantly fought to protect the country’s borders from the enemy forces.

The Bench also described as “unfortunate” the fact that the petitioner was driven to file writ petition before the court in 2022 following the state’s gross apathy and indolence in failing to take all the requisite steps. It was only on the filing of the petition by the brother that some sensitivity dawned upon the respondent-state in as much as it came forth with a reply, declaring that allotment letter had been issued and a revenue entry made in the revenue record.

The Bench was hearing the petition filed by Sarbjit Singh through counsel Charanpal Singh Bagri and Gurjit Kaur Jassar Bagri. It observed on a previous date of hearing that the land was admittedly handed over to the martyr’s father in 1974, pursuant to a gram panchayat resolution. But he went from pillar to post for the ownership’s transfer and other benefits till his death in 2006, after which his brother pursued the matter. A resolution was yet again passed by the gram panchayat on February 5, 2016.