Chandigarh : The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed the Centre’s plea against grant of special family pension to an Army personnel who died due to cancer, observing that stress and strain for a prolonged period in military service can lead to the malady.

The court also cited rules governing employees of the petitioner which stated that except for cancer due to smoking, the rest of the cancers have been treated to be attributable to military service.

A division bench of Justices Harsimran Singh Sethi and Vikas Suri made these observations while rejecting the Centre’s petition challenging a 2019 order of the Armed Forces Tribunal (Chandigarh).

The tribunal had directed that Kumari Salochna Verma be granted special family pension from the date of her son’s death.

The petitio

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