Special pension for kin of airman killed 'off duty'

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh bench of

Armed Forces Tribunal

(AFT) has held that a soldier who died while returning after watching a movie, shall be attributable to the military service and his family would be entitled to a special pension.

The tribunal passed these orders while allowing a petition by Tripta Devi, mother of corporal Vishal Raj of the Indian Air Force (IAF). While posted in West Bengal in October 2009, Vishal, who is originally from Pathankot in Punjab, died in a road accident while returning to his squadron after watching movie in a nearby city.

The defence ministry, however, refused to pay the petitioners the special pension meant for soldiers who die on duty and only granted Devi ordinary family pension on the ground that the death of her son was not attributable to service.

Devi approached the tribunal claiming that her son was on active military service and was not on leave at the time of accident. It was argued that before going for the movie, he had made the necessary entries in the records of his unit but died in the accident. The ministry, on the other hand, argued that he was not performing any military duty at that time as a result of which, the family was not entitled to the special pension.

A division bench of the tribunal comprising judicial member, Justice Mohammad Tahir and administrative member Lt Gen Munish Sibal held that the corporal sustained injuries while he was on duty which could be attributed to military service.

"Mother of deceased, Tripta Devi, is entitled to special family pension. The arrears of special family pension are restricted to three years preceding the date of filing of the petition - March 1, 2016 because the petitioner has approached the tribunal after a lapse of seven years of her son's death," ordered the bench in its judgement released on Monday. The tribunal directed the ministry to calculate the family pension and release it within three months.

Raj had joined IAF on December 16, 2002 and met with the accident in October 2009. Another airman, Vishal Singh, accompanying him was injured in the accident.


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