WWII SOLDIER WINS LEGAL BATTLE

of a 1958 photograph being morphed to show her with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in a publication of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). The photograph was published in an ICCR publication titled Journey of a Legend, on the life of Maulana Azad. He was also the first chairperson of the ICCR and the publication came out when the council was headed by Najma. The photograph showed a young Najma with Maulana Azad. The caption read “Najma Heptulla with Maulana Azad after her graduation”. Official inquiries later revealed that Najma had graduated in May 1958, whereas Maulana Azad had died on 22 February 1958. The publication was later withdrawn by the ICCR. One should salute the 93-year-old World War II soldier, Sowar Amar Singh, of Bhiwani in Haryana, for his patience. Because, after 75 years of struggle, he has won a legal battle that would entitle Indian soldiers to war injury pension for disabilities suffered in preIndependence operations, although there are not many such men around. The war injury element of pension is double the regular disability element that such soldiers are paid. Amar Singh was disabled during WWII, fighting the Japanese, while serving with the armoured corps on the Burma campaign in 1942. He had lost three fingers and suffered multiple fractures in his right arm. He had approached the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) pleading that despite having been injured during WWII, he was being paid regular disability pension admissible to cases of diseases incurred during service such as hypertension and heart disorder. In a landmark order, Justice Bansi Lal Bhat and Lieutenant General Sanjiv Chachra of the Armed Forces’ Tribunal’s Chandigarh Bench have ruled that “discrimination Independence, the same British Indian Army came to be known as the Indian Army. His claim was resisted by the government on the ground that when war injury pension was initially introduced in 1996 (vide a letter issued in 2001), it was applicable only to postIndependence wars and disabilities in international “peace keeping missions”. As Amar Singh was a pre1996 retiree, the said benefit could not be granted to him. Over 2.6 million Indian troops had participated in WWII, which is double the strength of the current Army. In his petition, he had pointed out that India and Pakistan had assured the British government of taking care of all such cases and had also taken over the serving soldiers and pensioners of preIndependence India. Many soldiers, who suffered disability during WWII, died in utter poverty, as they were released without pension on reduction of India’s military establishment. “I am glad that this judgement has come in my life-time,” says Amar Singh.