High Court: Must consider Army martyrs’ dependents too for police appointments

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, January 2

Nearly 35 years after a sub-lieutenant pilot in the navy and a member of the Indian Peace Keeping Force laid his life for the nation during Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka, the Punjab and Haryana High Court called for equal recognition for Army martyrs’ kin in matters of appointment. The high court also deprecated the police department for not considering the martyr’s kin for appointment.

Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma of the high court asserted that a person, who laid his life for the nation, and was a defence personnel, could not be put on a lower pedestal than the police martyrs. The assertion came as the Bench directed the State of Punjab and other respondents to consider the case of late Davinder Singh Sidhu’s nephew for deputy superintendent of police or a similar post in the police department.

Justice Sharma was hearing a petition filed by the late pilot’s father Sarabjeet Singh Sidhu. He was seeking directions to the respondents to consider his grandson, Arshdeep Singh Sidhu’s case for appointment in view of instructions dated September 24, 1999.

The judgment is significant as the state’s stand in the matter was that no dependent-member of army martyrs was provided appointment and only the Punjab Police martyrs’ kin were considered. The counsel for the petitioner had, on the other hand, submitted that distinction should not be drawn between the martyrs of the police department, war heroes and the armed forces.

Justice Sharma asserted: “Though the police martyrs are also required to be given the honour and their family members are also required to be resettled, different yardsticks cannot be adopted for the martyred army men. The claim of the petitioner’s grandson, who is the nephew of martyr Davinder Singh Sidhu, a sub-lieutenant pilot in the Indian Navy, in operation Pawan, cannot be ignored”.

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