In an unusual case, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has granted life time arrears of family pension to the daughter-in-law of a World War II-era soldier whose widow could not be sanctioned family pension for the duration she was alive after his death.The father-in-law of the applicant, Ram Surat was enrolled in the Indian Army as a Sepoy in 1944 and discharged from service in 1946. He later enrolled in the Defence Security Corps (DSC), where he served from 1962 to 1975.On release from service, the soldier was granted service pension. He died in 2003 and his wife passed away in 2009. However, the pension payment order (PPO) for grant of family pension in her favour could not be issued during her lifetime due to non-receipt of the required documents.“After the demise of soldier, it was the duty cast upon the respondents to issue PPO in favour of the wife of the late soldier for grant of family pension, but the same has not been issued for want of required documents,” the bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta and Lt Gen Anil Puri observed in their order of May 6.“However, the respondents did not make any sincere efforts to obtain the documents from the wife of the late soldier and she died in the year 2009 without getting family pension,” the bench added.The applicant’s husband, who too has since died because of cancer, approached DSC Records in 2022 to get his mother’s family pension and life time arrears (LTA) sanctioned. The respondents claimed that the LTA certificate was received from the Treasury Officer concerned in June 2023, stating that the wife of the soldier has already been paid LTA benefits of her late husband, and hence the applicant is not entitled for payment of LTA.This was countered by the applicant, saying that in reply to a letter from DSC Records in 2024, the Senior Treasury Officer, requesting the Records to take necessary action for releasing of family pension in respect of the soldier’s widow so that the due amount could to be paid to the next kin.“The husband of the applicant and now the applicant have been raising the issue of family pension / LTA right from the year 2009. In 2026, the amount of LTA has still not been released in favour of the applicant. This itself shows the lackadaisical approach of the respondents in not releasing the amount of LTA in favour of the applicant, who happens to be the daughter-in-law of late soldier,” the bench remarked.Directing the respondents to release the LTA amount within three months, the bench said that there is no other claimant except the applicant and as such, there would be no hurdle in releasing the LTA amount in favour of the applicant particularly when she is the only legal heir of the late soldier.