Widow of Shaurya Chakra awardee to get 9% interest on dues delayed for 11 years
› I fought for 11 years to get my rightful dues despite my husband being a Shauyrya Chakra awardee. I had three kids to look after.
SUKHWINDER KAUR, widow of Naib Subedar Kulwant Singh
CHANDIGARH : After an 11-yearlong fight to get her dues, the widow of a Shaurya Chakra awardee will get 9% interest on her pensionary benefits. The Chandigarh bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal ruled on Thursday. The widow was paid the pensionary benefits in January this year at the intervention of defence minister Niramala Sitharaman.
Sukhwinder Kaur of Rorgarh village in Patiala lost her husband Naib Subedar Kulwant Singh in 2007. Kulwant was killed in a massive explosion at an ammunition depot in a counter insurgency area in Kashmir. The soldier lost his life while saving several of his colleagues and his body could never be recovered. He was posthumously decorated with Shaurya Chakra by the President of India for displaying “conspicuous bravery” and his death was declared a “battle casualty”.
When the family pension papers were sent to the office of principal controller of defence accounts in Allahabad, Sukhwinder’s claim for the ‘liberalised family pension’ was turned down on the pretext that the soldier had not died in a ‘terrorist action’ though as per rules all deaths in notified operational areas were eligible for the benefits.
On a petition filed by Sukhwinder, the Chandigarh bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) on Thursday put the government on notice, directing it to pay the widow an interest of 9% on her on the delayed dues from the date of entitlement to the date of payment of the same.
In 2015, a high-level committee of experts constituted by the then defence minister had observed, “We find it difficult to digest as to how logic itself is being stretched to illogical limits due to an all-pervasive pessimistic environment just to deny benefits to our men and women in uniform.”