Supreme Court Rebukes Centre for Callousness, Orders Rs 50,000 Costs Over Soldier's Pension

The Supreme Court has penalized the Centre with Rs 50,000 in costs for unnecessarily appealing against a tribunal's order granting liberalised pension to a soldier's widow. The court criticized the decision to contest the case instead of sympathizing with the widow whose husband died during a patrol.

The Supreme Court imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the Centre for filing an appeal against the Armed Forces Tribunal's order granting a liberalised pension to the widow of a soldier.

A bench, led by Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih, expressed disappointment at the widow being dragged to court.

They stressed that sympathy should have been extended to the soldier's widow, prompting the decision to impose costs, payable within two months, to the widow who was initially denied the pension.

(With inputs from agencies.)