Observing that an 80-year-old widow could not get family pension after the death of her husband because the relevant documents had been destroyed after the specified period, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has asked the government to revise the stipulated period after which documents are automatically destroyed.

The applicant’s husband, late Audesh Narain Singh of the Rajputana Rifles, was enrolled in the Indian Army in August 1948 and discharged from service in October 1963. After his death in 2021, the applicant did not receive family pension. It emerged that the wife’s name was not entered in the personal service records after marriage. Amendments in the records could not be carried out because they had been destroyed on completion of 50 years after the individual’s retirement.

There is a requirement of the relevant authorities revising the policy on destruction of documents mechanically after 50 years of retirement of an individual without consideration to the fact that either the pensioner or his dependent receiving a family pension is alive,” the Tribunal’s Bench comprising Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta and Maj Gen Sanjay Singh, ruled while holding that the applicant was entitled for pension and directing the authorities issue the relevant documents in respect of the applicant.

“Life expectancies have considerably increased over the years and there is an urgent need to revise the policy on retention of documents of retirees to ensure that documents of an individual are not destroyed, while pension in respect of an individual and his or her dependent is still being disbursed and for some years thereafter to cater for life time arrears,” the Bench said.

To this end, data available with the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) through existence/annual life certificate, etc. be synchronised with data at the Record Office periodically, and the duration for which data is retained in physical or digital form post- retirement or discharge of an individual is revised,

After leaving the Army, the soldier was re-enrolled in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from where he was also granted service pension on completion of service. At the time of his death, he was in receipt of pensions both from the Army and the CRPF. Thereafter, the applicant received family pension from the CRPF.

Aggrieved with non-grant of family pension from the Army, she submitted an application to the Records Office, The Rajputana Rifles, in July 2021, annexing the requisite documents and later visited the Zila Sainik Kalyan Evam Punarvas, for grant of family pension. After protracted correspondence, it emerged that ‘Part-II Order’ regarding her marriage with the deceased soldier was not published and that was the reason she was not granted family pension from the Army.

During hearings before the AFT, the authorities contended that service documents of the deceased soldier had been destroyed by burning in 2013 on expiry of its stipulated period of retention and since the name of the applicant was not recorded in the Long Roll, she is not entitled to grant of family pension. Further, he had been advised in October 2022 to submit certain documents for publication of Part-II Order, but due to non-receipt of the complete set of documents, it could not be published.

Observing that it was not in dispute that the soldier was receiving both the pensions and the applicant was receiving pension from CRPF, the Bench said that destroying service documents of a pensioner, who is in receipt of benefits, was not rational or logical.