KASHMIRO DEVI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner seeks ordinary family pension which has been stopped on account of her remarriage to the brother of her deceased husband, who died in service.

(2.) LATE Sepoy Sher Singh joined Army and died while in active service on 02. 12. 1975. The petitioner, being the wife of the deceased Sepoy, was granted ordinary family pension from the said date. The petitioner, as per local customs, remarried the real brother of her deceased husband on 21. 11. 1977 and the ordinary family pension was discontinued from the date of the marriage. It appears that the petitioner did not raise the issue further for almost 17 years when she sent a legal notice through her counsel on 10. 06. 1994 demanding release of the pension. In reply to the said demand, the respondents vide letter dated 14. 07. 1994 informed her that she was not entitled to the ordinary family pension in view of her marriage to the brother of her deceased husband. The petitioner has thereafter filed the present petition on 25. 03. 1995.

(3.) IN the counter affidavit, it has been stated that the death of late Sepoy sher Singh was considered neither attributable to nor aggravated due to military service as he had died as a result of Thrombosis in the artery. The case for special family pension was rejected but ordinary family pension was sanctioned to the petitioner vide Pension Payment Order (PPO) dated 12. 09. 1977. A specific note was also given on reverse side of the PPO as under :-"for the purpose of this Award, the marriage even with the real brother of the deceased soldier will be a disqualification. "