Ex-Armyman’s second wife moves Gujarat high court

AHMEDABAD: A retired soldier’s widow knocked on the Gujarat high court’s doors on Thursday, after the Army denied her family pension on the grounds that she was his second wife.
The petition was filed by 76-year-old Lalitaben Patel and her divorcee daughter Hetalben, both residents of Adalaj, seeking directions to the Centre and the Sena Seva Corps to grant them the pension that retired Army person Prabhudas Patel used to receive till his demise in December 2019.
According to petitioners’ advocate Girish Patel, Prabhudas Patel was born in 1943 in Kenya and was brought up in the African country. Upon his return to India, he got drafted into the Army in February 1963. He got married to one Tarulata Chavda in Surat in 1972. But eight days later, she left him and her whereabouts were not to be found.
Patel got married a second time to Lalitaben in 1977. They had two daughters. He left the Army in 1978 and later accepted the job of a watchman with a state government department, from where he retired in 2003. He drew pension for the state government’s job as well as for his services with the Army.
After Patel’s demise, his widow started receiving family pension from the state government, but the Army did not grant her any. She requested for the family pension, but was refused on the ground that she was the second wife of the pensioner and Patel’s service book had the name of the first wife.
The widow wrote various letters to the Sainik Welfare and Resettlement Office stating that they had no idea of the first wife’s whereabouts, neither had she ever claimed the pension from any of the departments till date. She also placed earlier communications made by Patel on record, in which the retired soldier had requested the central department to make arrangements to grant pension to Lalitaben after his death. He had made several requests to change the records, in which his first wife’s name was mentioned.
After waiting for positive response for a couple of years, the widow and her divorcee daughter filed a petition in the high court and submitted that after Tarulata left Patel, the latter apprehended that she would leave the country and informed the district collector. The Regional Passport Office was also intimated with request to stop her leaving the country. The petitioners have placed the communications on record along with the letters that Patel had written to insert the second wife’s name for pension scheme. The petitioners have also stated that if the first wife claims the pension, they would return the amount with interest.
After preliminary hearing, the bench of Justice A J Desai and Justice A P Thaker admitted the petition and sought reply from the authorities by October 11, when further hearing has been posted.