Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 17

After 75-year struggle, a soldier disabled during WW-II fighting the Japanese has won a legal battle that would entitle Indian soldiers to war injury pension for disabilities suffered in pre-Independence operations. The war injury element of pension is double the regular disability element that such soldiers are paid.Sowar Amar Singh, 93, of Bhiwani in Haryana, was serving with the armoured corps on the Burma campaign in 1942 when he lost three fingers and suffered multiple fractures in his right arm. He had approached the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) with a plea that despite having been injured during WW-II, he was being paid regular disability pension admissible to cases of diseases incurred during service such as hypertension and heart disorder.The AFT’s Chandigarh Bench comprising Justice Bansi Lal Bhat and Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra ruled that discrimination could not be perpetrated by distinguishing between injuries suffered in different wars.Amar Singh had averred that it made no difference that soldiers were fighting for the British Crown during those times since WW-II and post-Independence, the same British Indian Army became known as the Indian Army.Over 2.6 million Indian troops had participated in WW-II, which is double the strength of the present Army. Many died in penury on being released without pension on reduction of India’s military establishment.