The main legal point established in the judgment is that entitlement to War Injury Pension and Family Pension is determined by the specific provisions of Army Instruction 51 of 1980 and the Family Pension Scheme 1964.

Hemant Gupta, J.

1. The petitioner, wife of Late Havildar Badlu Ram, has invoked the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court for issuance of a direction to the respondents to revise the War Injury Pension in respect of her husband from 24.04.1946 to 25.10.1988 and to sanction and release family pension to the petitioner w.e.f. 26.10.1988.

2. It is the case of the petitioner that her husband joined 15 Punjab Regiment on 25.09.1937 in good health. He was seriously wounded and sustained severe head injury on 12.01.1944 while fighting against the enemy forces and in recognition of his gallantry act, he was awarded Jangi Inaam by the Government of India. The husband of the petitioner was invalidated out of army service on 23.04.1946 and was awarded War Injury Pension at the rate of Rs. 10/- per month which he received till his death on 25.10.1988.

3. The petitioner claims that such War Injury Pension is required to be revised from time to time but. During the course of hearing, petitioner restricted her claim for grant of Family Pension after the death of her husband on 25.10.1988. Learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon Army Instruction 51 of 1980, Annexure P- 2, contemplating Family Pension admissible to the families of the Armed Forces Personnel who were in service on 01.01.1964 or who joined service thereafter and who died while in service or after retirement with retiring, disability or invalid pension/ special pension on account of causes which are neither attributable to nor aggravated by service. Learned counsel for the petitioner also relied upon the provisions of Family Pension Scheme, 1964 , wherein family pension is contemplated to be payable to a Government servant entering service in pensionable establishment on or after the 1 st January, 1964 and to a Government servant who was in service on the 31st December, 1963, and came to be governed by the provisions of the Family Pension Scheme dated 31st December 1963.

4. In reply, it has been pointed out that the husband of the petitioner was released from the Army and not invalidated out under the provision of Para 318 of Regulation (Part II) 1940. It is pleaded that the deceased husband of the petitioner was not entitled to pension as he has rendered service of less than 10 years nor disability pension/war injury pension as he was not invalidated out of service on account of disability or was injury. It has been further pleaded that the petitioner has been granted gratuity as per Jat Regiment Long Roll. It has been pointed out that had the deceased been eligible for pension, the gratuity would not have been paid to him. It was further pleaded that the husband of the petitioner during his life time has not sought pension as the fact regarding non-admissibility for grant of any type of pension might have been conveyed during the year 1946. It was also pointed out that service documents have been destroyed after expiry of their period of retention and respondents have nothing to put forth in their defence at this stage. It was further pointed out that Army Instructions 51/80 stipulated that family pension benefits would be admissible to the families of the armed forces personnel who were in service on 1st January, 1964 or who joined/join service thereafter and who died/die while in service. The ordinary family pension to the families of the armed forces personnel who retired or died before 1st January, 1964 had been made admissible vide Government instructions dated August 08, 1985. Since the husband of the petitioner was not drawing any type of pension at the time of his death, therefore, no family pension is admissible to the petitioner. In respect of Jangi Inaam, it was submitted that this benefit is admissible to one life only in terms of notification dated 18-05-1995 and no benefits are admissible to the petitioner consequent to the death of her husband. The said notification has been appended as Annexure R-2.

5. The claim of the petitioner is b