SC panel for service matters redressal
Appalled by the ill treatment of the widow of a highly-decorated Army major who fought three wars for the country but she in return was given a paltry pension of `80 per month, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered setting up a high-powered commission for redressal of the service-related problems of officers and personnel of the defence forces.
The five-member judicial commission would be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Kuldip Singh with former Allahabad high court Chief Justice S.S. Sodhi as vice-chairman and former Army Chief General V.P. Malik and former vice-chief of Army Staff Lt. General Vijay Oberoi as its members.
The fifth member, who would be a civil servant, will be nominated by the Union government, a bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra in a significant order said.
Explaining that the commission would be entirely different from the Armed Forces Tribunal, the top court directed the government to issue a formal notification within two months for putting the panel in place, which would be a “recommendatory body not a adjudicatory entity”.
The commission will have its headquarters in Chandigarh as all the persons approved by the top court for inclusion in it, are residing in the Union Territory and it will have initial tenure for two years while the Union government would make appointments of the chairperson, vice-chairperson and other members later after their tenure is over. “The petitioner before us is a widow Pushpa Vanti whose husband was an Army major who had fought in three wars (1948, 1962, 1965) and was decorated with 15 medals. However, his widow is getting only `80 pension per month, in these days when a kg of Ahrar dal costs exactly the same amount,” the anguished bench recorded.
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