KANCHAN DUA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sanction was accorded by the President of India for the modifications to the Rules/Regulations concerning pensionary benefits to the Armed Forces personnel on 31.01.2001. Pensionary benefits upon the death or disability in attributable/aggravated cases is dealt with in Part II thereof. Category 'E' of Part II is as follows:

(2.) The eligible members of the family of Armed Forces personnel mentioned in Category 'E' shall be entitled to Liberalised Family Pension in case of his death. The scope of the above provision falls for our consideration in these appeals.

(3.) The husband of the Appellant was commissioned in the Army in October, 1968. In 1990, he was promoted as a Colonel. When he was posted as the Commandant of 890 Animal Transport Battalion in Nowshera, Jammu and Kashmir, he was moved to Rajouri for Operational requirement in Operation Ran Vijay at the location of HQ 25 Infantry Division. In the morning of 25.01.1992, he was found dead in his room. The cause of death was found to be sudden cardiac failure due to high stress and strain. The Appellant was initially granted ordinary family pension and, later special family pension. She made a representation for grant of Liberalised Family Pension. The Appellant complained that the entry in the service record of her husband was wrongfully altered from "Physical casualty under Operation Rakshak" to "Physical casualty". As there was no response, she filed a Writ Petition in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh seeking alteration of the entry in the service record of her husband from "Physical casualty" to "Physical casualty under Operation Rakshak". The High Court allowed the Writ Petition and directed the alteration of the service record of the Appellant's husband to "physical casualty under Operation Rakshak". Reliance was placed by the High Court on the findings recorded in the Court of Inquiry that the death of the Appellant's husband was attributable to bona fide military service in the field covered under Operation Rakshak. The High Court further directed the Respondents to consider grant of Liberalised Family Pension to the Appellant.