A woman named Vijay Mohan from Chandigarh has received money owed to her as a special family pension, 37 years after her husband passed away while on duty. A soldier with the Artillery died in April 1978 from an electric shock while fixing an electric board in the unit’s area. A group of people looked into his death and said it was because he was doing military work at the time. His wife asked for extra money, but the military said no because they think his death was not caused by military work. Instead, she received a lower amount of money called an ordinary family pension. In 2015, she asked the Army Headquarters to consider giving her a special family pension. The committee that deals with appeals looked at her case again because it had been rejected in 1979. They considered the rules and administrative laws and agreed with her appeal. She started receiving a special pension for her family starting in October 2015, when she made the request. She asked for extra money to support her family after her husband died, but her request was denied because she didn’t follow the instructions given to her in 1979. So, she started getting a pension in 2015 when she asked for it. Later, she went to the Armed Forces Tribunal to ask for the money she should have received from when her husband died until 2015, as well as interest. In her appeal, she said that she cannot read and was not told about the rejection letter in 1979. The judges said that it is already known that her husband’s death was because of his military service, and just because she didn’t ask for her rights earlier doesn’t mean the authorities can ignore what she deserves. In simpler words, the court said that it is the duty of an employee to calculate and give the pension to the widow when it is supposed to be given, based on previous court decisions. The court ruled that it was unfair and wrong to only give the person pension money from the date they appealed. They said this went against their rights. The court told the government to give the person pension money for the past 37 years.
