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Santosh Devi v. Union of India & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 4853 of 2016)Decided 6 May 2016
Civil Appeal No. 4853 of 2016
Chief Justice T.S. Thakur · Justice R. Banumathi

Background

Raj Singh served over 11 years in the Territorial Army before being "disembodied" (released from active duty) in 2008, and he died of a heart attack a few months later while in this disembodied state. His widow, Santosh Devi, was denied family pension on the ground that Territorial Army personnel who die while disembodied, without completing 15 years of embodied service, are not entitled to it. The Armed Forces Tribunal, Chandigarh rejected her claim, and she appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that Territorial Army personnel remain on the rolls and liable to be recalled even during disembodiment, and that the government's own internal reports (including a 2015 Committee of Experts report) had flagged this denial of family pension as an unaddressed anomaly compared to regular army personnel. While the Court did not strike down the pension rule itself, it invoked its special constitutional power under Article 142 to do complete justice, and directed the Union of India to pay the widow an ex-gratia amount of Rs. 10 lakhs within three months, given her husband's long unblemished service. The Court also urged the government to fix the underlying pension-rule anomaly going forward.

Lesson Learnt

Even where existing service rules technically bar a benefit, the Supreme Court can use its special Article 142 powers to grant equitable relief in deserving cases, but such relief is case-specific and does not automatically change the rule for everyone else.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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