Supreme Court questions IAF over denial of family pension to stepmother of air force personnel

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said it will examine whether a stepmother can be considered for family pension under the Indian Air Force rules, saying “mother is a very wide term”.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh questioned the Indian Air Force's (IAF) decision to deny family pension to a woman, who raised her stepson since the age of six and said the regulations are not constitutional mandates.

"'Mother' is a very wide term," the bench said, adding that nowadays, with so many things happening in the world, it is not the biological mother alone who raises the child.

Justice Surya Kant told the counsel for the air force, "Take, for example, if a baby is born and the biological mother passes away and the father marries again... The stepmother, right from the time when the child requires breastfeeding, brings him up, and then he becomes an army officer, air force and navy. If she has really looked after that child, is she not his mother?" The counsel tried to justify the decision of the IAF, saying there are numerous judgments which rule out a stepmother from family pension.

"There are judgments of this court interpreting the word stepmother. There is a well-established criterion under the regulations as to who is eligible for family pension," the counsel for the air force said.

"Regulations are something which you have decided. Regulations are not something constitutional mandates... We are questioning the logic behind these regulations. How and on what basis can you deprive technically a stepmother of a special pension or family pension," Justice Surya Kant said.

Failing to get an appropriate response from lawyers both for the petitioner as well as the air force, the bench said it appears both the advocates are not prepared and asked them to go through the judgments of the court as well as high court on the subject.

"There are two judgments of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, including one related to civil services rules, which has dealt with the issue of stepmother and pension. You go through these judgments and come prepared on the next date of hearing," Justice Surya Kant told the lawyers and posted the matter for hearing on August 7.

The top court was hearing a plea of Jayashree, who had raised her stepson Harsha after his biological mother passed away.

She has challenged the December 10, 2021, decision of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) denying the family pension after her son, who was in the air force, passed away.

On July 19 last year, the top court agreed to hear the plea and issued notice to the Centre and the Air Force.

The bench said, "The question that falls for consideration in this case is whether a stepmother is entitled to special pension and ordinary family pension as per the Army regulations." The AFT, in its decision of December 10, 2021, upheld the IAF's decision denying special family pension to the stepmother on the ground that it can only be given to the biological mother.