Widow of soldier killed in fratricide wins case for higher pension in military court

The widow of a jawan who was killed by a fellow soldier during 'Field Firing' (small arms) training exercise in 2015 has won the case in Armed Forces Tribunal where she had prayed for a higher pension than what she had been getting.

The Petitioner, namely, Renu Sharma who is the wife of late Havaldar Rajeev Kamal, had appealed in the Armed Forces Tribunal at Delhi through her counsel Colonel Indra Sen Singh (Retd) on the ground that her husband's death was attributable to military service during battle inoculation training and that she was entitled to claim Liberalized Family Pension (LFP) instead of the Special Family Pension that has been granted.

The LFP amount is equivalent to the last pay drawn by the defence personnel before his death while the special family pension is equivalent to the amount of 60 per cent of the soldier's reckonable emoluments of the individual, Col Singh said.

The Defence Ministry's counsel in the case had opposed the widow's plea saying that regulations did not allow the Jawan's widow to be granted LFP as her husband's death was caused due to intentional killing by a fellow soldier and not due to unintentional killing.

After hearing the arguments from both sides, the Armed Forces Tribunal bench headed by Justice Sunita Gupta held that the death of jawan happened during a battle inoculation training and allowed the case granting the jawan's widow liberalized family pension.

"Even though Competent Army authority held his death attributable to military service, yet his widow was granted an only special family pension and not the liberalized family pension on the ground that it was an intentional killing and a case of fratricide," Col Singh said.

Allowing the petition, the tribunal said the applicant is entitled to Liberalized Family Pension from the date of death of her husband i.e. August 26, 2015.

"The respondents are directed to grant Liberalized Family Pension, as held in Para 16 above, to the applicant and make payment of the arrears of difference between SFP and LFP within a period of four months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order," the military court said.

This is a path-breaking judgement that will benefit a number of similarly situated widows of soldiers, who are getting only special family pension and not LFP, Col Singh said.

( With inputs from ANI )