It has been a matter of discussion among the Pensioners for a long time as to why the Ordinary Family Pension is being reduced to 60% of the Retiring Pension on the demise of the Pensioner. Some veterans took the trouble of writing letters, demanding the same pension that the pensioner had been receiving during his/her lifetime, to the Service HQs and MoD but of no avail.
Here is some good news for the environment. Some veterans and family pensioners decided to knock at the doors of the honourable Supreme Court and ventured ahead to go through the ardant procedures to qualify themselves to file a PIL for the Family Pensioners.
Family Pensioners Welfare Samiti (FPWS) is now a Registered Society with the Registrar of Societies Meerut. The Samiti is NOIDA based chaired by Brig Satish C Kuthiala (Retd), Arty. They are seven members of the society in toto including Brigadier Narinder Dhan and Mrs Shashi Singh who is the Secretary of the society. Being a registered society they have obtained PAN Card and have a proper Bank Account with SBI.
The aim of the society includes welfare of the Family Pensioners with special reference to the Jawans who retire at a very early age. The veterans, after six months of toiling, have been able to file the petition in Supreme Court praying to the court that when Retiring Pension of the pensioner is converted to Family Pension it should not be reduced to 60% but the same amount should continue for the life. The PIL came up for hearing on 29th Apr 24 by the bench of the CJI. It is heartening that the petition has been accepted by the honourable Supreme Court of India.
The court order in this regard dt 29 Apr 24 is in pdf format here. The society is being intimately supported by TSEWA and the IESM . So, the members are extremely thankful to the veterans who have supported them till now enabling them to file the petition. The society members with all veterans family members and ESM pensioners are quite hopeful of positive results.
The case will now get processed in the Supreme Court. So, let’s pray and wish for favourable judgement when the time comes.
The Society members has stated that the veterans can communicate with them on Email – mgr.grps@gmail.com, they will soon be hosting a special web post to inform the environment on the progress of the case as it goes about.