MIG-21 pilot’s widow seeks reinstatement in IAF after losing husband in crash

Her husband, Wing Commander Harshit Sinha, was killed in a MIG-21 crash near Jaisalmer in December 2021 during a nighttime sortie. The couple has two daughters aged nine and five years respectively.

Acting on her petition, the AFT Bench of Justice Anjana Mishra and Lt Gen PM Hariz (retd) on May 18 asked the Ministry of Defence to reconsider the policy letters regarding the induction of Veer Naris (war widows) in the defence services.

The bench has asked the MoD to examine the necessity of having a suitable policy for women short service commission officers who have been released from service and are widowed when their spouses serving in the armed forces die in harness and they wish to rejoin the services due to the compelling circumstances.

The bench has sought a compliance report within three months and added that if a change in policy is made then the petitioner should be considered for giving benefits.

Squadron Leader Priyanka Saxena was commissioned into the IAF as a short service commissioned officer in December 2003. She had opted out of IAF on completion of 10 years of service and was therefore released in December 2013.

She was married in November 2006 to Wing Commander Harshit Sinha. In early 2022, she submitted a series of applications to various hierarchies in the IAF requesting that she be reinstated in the IAF considering the fact that she had already served 10 years as a short service commissioned officer. However, though the application was processed at the appropriate level, the request for reinstatement was not acceded to in the light of the prevalent policies of the government.

The counsel for Squadron Leader Priyanka told the tribunal that what was essentially sought by the petitioner was a relaxation in the age criteria laid down in the policy letter dated November 2017.

He pointed out that under this policy letter, the government had raised the ceiling for eligibility for widows of deceased defence personnel seeking entry into pre-commission training to a maximum of 35 years. The counsel then elaborated that what the petitioner had sought was a relaxation of these age criteria taking into account that a class of widows of defence personnel like the applicant, who had earlier served in the Armed Forces be granted an additional relaxation in the age criteria to permit them to seek a second entry into the Armed Forces.

The counsel stated that the applicant was already 40 years old when she applied for consideration of age relaxation. He further stated that there will be a situation when widows who had earlier served in the Armed Forces may seek similar entry. The counsel then emphasised that with more women entering the Armed Forces, it was incumbent on the government to examine this emerging trend and make suitable amendments to their policy to also cater for this class of aspirants as the applicant here.

Since this class are of officers who had earlier served in the Armed Forces for 10 to 14 years, and were subsequently willing to serve again due to changed and compelling circumstances, any amendment to the existing policy needs to be addressed in not only relaxing the age criteria but also the type of re-orientation training required to induct this class of officers back into service.

The counsel for the MoD and IAF informed the court that there had been similar applications from other women officers of IAF who had been widowed and that these too had been rejected like the petitioner because the rules did not allow for age relaxation to them. He also said that based on the letter written by her to the defence minister, the petitioner had been offered a commission in the Territorial Army but this had not been accepted by her.

The counsel for the government had further argued that no individual had the right to seek any appointment purely on compassionate grounds.