Widow of martyred major...

An amount of Rs 60 lakh will be granted to Aakriti Sood and Rs 40 lakh to Chandrakant Sood, the GR states. Also, a monthly amount of Rs 9,000 has been awarded to Aakriti Sood under the Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar Yojana.

Earlier, on April 4, the HC had asked Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to consider Aakriti Sood’s case as a special one and grant her financial benefits.

The state advocate had told the HC that it could be extended only to those born in the state who have lived in the state for 15 continuous years. The bench had asked the chief minister to consider the petitioner’s case as a special case and extend the benefits.

Despite the HC order, the state, on April 12, reiterated that benefits couldn’t be extended to Aakriti as the major was not a ‘domicile’ of the state. Government pleader P P Kakade had said, “We need to take a proper policy decision, for which we need to approach the cabinet. The cabinet is not sitting now.”

Expressing its unhappiness and surprise over the

government’s failure to decide on granting monetary benefits to the family of late Major Anuj Sood, the bench had asked the government to put it on affidavit.

The state, on Wednesday, finally said that it had decided to extend the benefits as a special case. Appreciating the government’s decision, the bench said the government has given respect to a difficult situation. “These are real human agonies. Always, there is an exception... it is a special case,” Justice Kulkarni said.

“We highly appreciate the stand taken by the Chief Minister and the state government in considering the petitioner’s case as a special case and granting benefits,” the bench noted in its order.

The court has disposed of the petition, noting that the amount shall be disbursed as expeditiously as possible.