Late soldier’s wife fights arduous battle for pension
Some months before D. Ra-
mu, an Army Naik, was to
be discharged from service
on medical grounds in
2002, he was required to
submit a joint photograph
with his wife Anuradha,
whom he had married in
1991. Ms. Anuradha was his
authorised “next of kin” as
per records of the Corps of
Army Air Defence (AAD).
Postdischarge, he re-
ceived pension till his
death in April 2010. The-
reafter, the Zilla Sainik Wel-
fare Office in Mahabubna-
gar, Telangana, received a
family pension application
from one D. Padma stating
she was Ramu’s widow.
The officer incharge,
however, told Ms. Padma
her name did not tally with
the details of spouse men-
tioned in Ramu’s service
documents.
It emerged that years af-
ter Ms. Anuradha allegedly
deserted him, Ramu had
married Ms. Padma in
2003 and fathered three
children.
In September 2010, the
Army authorities received
another petition seeking
disbursal of Ramu’s death
benefits to Ms. Anuradha
and Ms. Padma, with 25%
share for the first wife and
the remaining for the
second.
The authorities were
perplexed when Ms. Pad-
ma not only contested the
claim of Ramu’s previous
marriage to Ms. Anuradha,
but said that the applica-
tion for pension received
in Ms. Anuradha’s name
was actually sent by Ra-
mu’s sister Suseela.
Ms. Suseela admitted
that she was indeed Ra-
mu’s sister. It so happened
that Ramu, at the time of
his discharge, was unable
to legally substitute Ms.
Padma as his spouse since
he had not divorced Ms.
Anuradha.
Therefore, on the advice
of someone, he had asked
Ms. Suseela to pose for a
joint photograph with him
and submitted it to the
AAD, passing it off as that
of his wife Ms. Anuradha.
After a lengthy legal bat-
tle, the Armed Forces Tri-
bunal, Regional Bench,
Chennai Circuit Bench at
Hyderabad held that the
continuous cohabitation of
Ms. Padma and Ramu
could be presumed to be a
“lawful marriage”.
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