Army veteran of 1971 war gets justice after 52 years: too little, too late

A resident of village Khanpur Khaddar, Tehsildar Banur, District Mohali, Sepoy Sham Singh was serving with the 6 Sikh in the Poonch sector on December 9, 1971 when a Pakistani mortar bomb exploded near him. As a result, he sustained injuries in both his eyes and was referred to the Military Hospital, Rajouri. He lost sight in one eye but a Release Medical Board (RMB) assessed his disability as 20 per cent for a period of two years and termed it to be neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service.

He filed the petition before the AFT Chandigarh bench in 2017 after having exhausted all options of redressal from the Principal Controller Defence Accounts (Pensions) also known as PCDA (P).

Karnail Kaur (sitting second from right) with members of Ex-Servicemen Grievances Cell Mohali who fought her case. Express

Giving details of the case, Lt Col S S Sohi (retd), president of Ex-Servicemen Grievances Cell, Mohali, the organisation which took up his case, said Sham Singh was enrolled in the Indian Army on February 1966 and was invalided out from service in January 1973 after rendering six years and 346 days of service.

Sham Singh was getting only Rs 8,000 as pension after working as a Chowkidar in the Labour Commissioner department in Chandigarh. His widow will now get Rs 18,000 as pension from the Army in addition to the earlier pension that Sham Singh was getting.

Notably, since the RMB assessed his disability as 20 per cent for a period of two years and termed it to be neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service, his claim for the grant of war injury pension/ disability pension had been rejected.

Sham Singh made a representation through Zila Sainik Board for war injury pension but to no avail. His claim for the grant of disability pension had been rejected by the PCDA(P) in May 1973.

The invalid gratuity Rs 1,341.35 was remitted to him in the month of August 1973 through money order. After discharge from the Army, he was re-employed with the Labour Commissioner, Chandigarh, against the post of chowkidar.

The AFT Bench agreed with the contention of the counsel for Sham Singh that the deceased soldier received injuries during the Indo-Pak war.

“The same, as such, is not only attributable to but aggravated also by military service. Otherwise also the Medical Board in its proceedings has not assigned any other and further reason qua the manner in which the applicant received injuries in case not during Indo-Pak War…the attitude of the respondent towards a disabled soldiers who received injury during war is throughout callous harsh and oppressive,” the bench observed in its order.

The bench has directed the respondents to pay War Injury Pension at the rate of 20 per cent for two years i.e. from the date of his discharge i.e. 22.01.1973 to 21.01.1975 and after that service pension till the date of his death i.e. 19.05.2021.

“There shall also be a direction to the respondent to grant the liberalised pension to Karnail Kaur, his widow, from the day next to his death i.e. 20.05.2021. In future also they shall continue to pay the ordinary family pension to her for life,” the order says.