Don't reduce soldiers' family pension, PIL pleads in Supreme Court
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Union government on a PIL questioning the irrational reduction in family pension for a deceased ex-serviceman who retired from the armed forces between 38 to 42 years with many unfulfilled family obligations.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud was initially reluctant to entertain the PIL on the grounds that it is a policy matter.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud was initially reluctant to entertain the PIL on the grounds that it is a policy matter.
Still, senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta convinced the bench to seek a response from the Union government, saying that when a retired soldier dies early, the entire burden of rearing the family falls on his widow , whose only resource is the family pension.
Gupta said a retired soldier gets a pension of 50 per cent of the last drawn salary , and after being released from the armed forces, he supplements the pension amount by getting engaged in various jobs in the civilian sector.
However, when such an ex-serviceman dies young, his family not only loses the salary he was drawing from the job in the civilian sector but also receives a family pension which is 30% of his last drawn salary. At that age, the widow has to look after the education of the children and later their marriage.
Gupta said a retired soldier gets a pension of 50 per cent of the last drawn salary , and after being released from the armed forces, he supplements the pension amount by getting engaged in various jobs in the civilian sector.
However, when such an ex-serviceman dies young, his family not only loses the salary he was drawing from the job in the civilian sector but also receives a family pension which is 30% of his last drawn salary. At that age, the widow has to look after the education of the children and later their marriage.
The PIL by the NGO ‘Family Pensioners Welfare Samiti’ said, “On the other hand, a service personnel who dies in harness and whose death is attributable to military service other than during war or during military operations, his widow gets 'Special Family Pension' at the rate of 60% of the soldier's last pay drawn.”
It said, “A service personnel who dies in harness and whose death is attributable to military service during war or war-like situations or in a notified military operation, his widow gets 'Liberalized Family Pension' at the rate of 100% of the Soldier's last pay drawn, that is double the amount of service pension and more than three times the amount of Ordinary-Family-Pension.”
“Out of the approximately 6.50 lakh widow pensioners of ex-servicemen across the country, nearly 85%, that is approximately 5.53 lakh, are widows of Persons belonging to JCOs/ORs category, with numerous unfulfilled commitments,” it said.
The PIL said on average the last drawn salary of a soldier is Rs 50,000, which meant the ordinary family pension would be around Rs 15,000 for a widow of an ex-serviceman who dies young after release from the armed forces.
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