Do you know, Modi government repealed a law that mandated Veer Nari to marry her brother-in-law for the continuation of martyr’s pension

Amidst a raging debate on the Next of Kin rules for pension and other benefits, a repealed law of the Armed Forces has taken centre stage. However, it is pertinent to note that this was a mandatory law in the armed forces till 2017 which restricted the choice of martyr’s wife to start afresh and re-marry and forced her to remarry her brother-in-law to continue receiving monetary allowances. However, the martyr’s widow could continue to receive the allowances only if she married her brother-in-law and “lived a communal life with the living eligible heir.” However, on 16th November 2017, the Modi government repealed the ‘regressive’ law after receiving several representations from various quarters including the Army Tribunal. It added that the Ministry received representations from various quarters to remove the condition of the widow’s remarriage with the late husband’s brother for continuation of the monetary allowance. Notably, four years after the Modi government repealed the mandatory condition, the Armed Forces Tribunal in October 2021 declared regulations that deprive a soldier’s widow of liberalised family pension if she remarries anyone other than her husband’s brother as “void”.