Armed Forces Tribunal clears war injury pension for World War-II veteran

The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has held that a soldier injured during World War-II as part of British Indian Army would be entitled to war injury pension on a par with those injured in the post-Independence wars. The Lucknow bench of the tribunal passed these orders after the Union government had denied this pension to a veteran who had been injured in Italy in 1944 during the WW-II.

AFT’s Lucknow bench, comprising Justice Umesh Chandra Srivastava, judicial member, and Vice Admiral Abhay Raghunath Karve, administrative member, has passed these order while allowing a petition filed by Rifleman Govind Singh Rawat of Patty-Khatsyyum village of Pauri Garhwal district of Uttrakhand, who is currently residing in Dehradun.

Rawat was enrolled in the Third Royal Garhwal Battalion of British Army on September 6, 1941, and was injured in a battle in Italy during World War-II. As per the discharge medical certificate issued on January 31, 1947, he had received ‘splinter wound of the right knee of the femur and skull on October 3, 1944.”


He was invalided out from service on April 6, 1947, and granted disability pension for life from April 7, 1947. Rawat, however, wanted a war injury pension instead of disability pension. War injury pension is much higher than the disability pension. As the government had not responded to his representations, he had approached the AFT to get war injury pension.

Strongly opposing the plea, the Union government submitted that Rawat is not entitled to war injury pension as per the ministry of defence letter dated February 24, 1972, which stipulates that policy is applicable to disabled veterans wounded during wars and operations of 1971, 1965 and 1947-48. “Since applicant has sustained injury during World War-II, i.e. pre-Independence, he is not entitled to war injury pension,” argued the government.

It was further argued that the present case pertains to pre-Independence and medical documents related to applicants have already been destroyed after holding for 50 years. Therefore, in the absence of relevant medical documents the case cannot be decided at this stage. The tribunal, however, held that due to law of limitations applicants shall be entitled to war injury pension along with arrears from three years prior to filing of this application.