Observing that ‘the plight and plea of the widow of an ex-service personnel was blissfully ignored by the Department of Sainik Welfare and Resettlement’, the High Court of Karnataka has directed the department to issue widow identity card to a 52-year-old woman within two weeks along with all consequential benefits of such identity.
“Grant of an identity card for being widow of an ex-serviceman guarantees certain benefits to a widow. What the department ought to have had is lots of empathy and little of sympathy towards the petitioner, as on the death of the husband, the sole breadwinner of the family, the wife and family are driven to grave, impecuniosity and would be condemned by penury,” the court observed.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations while allowing a petition filed by the wife of the ex-serviceman.
