Court Upholds ₹10 Lakh Relief for Crossfire Survivor Despite Govt Opposition

Srinagar, Feb 6: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has upheld a compensation of `10 lakh that its single bench had ordered to pay to Jehangir Ahmad Khan, a helper in the Forest Department whose arm was amputated after a firearm injury during a cross-firing incident in 2000.

In response to Khan’s plea of 2015, a single-judge bench in its decision on June 9, 2023, had directed payments of `10 lakh as compensation to Khan. This verdict had been challenged by the government in an appeal before the division bench of the court.

Khan was serving as a helper in J&K’s Forest Department when he became a victim of cross firing incident in 2000.

He was seriously injured in cross-firing, which ultimately resulted in the amputation of his right arm. After approaching the authorities for a grant of compensation for the injuries he suffered, `75,000 was released as ex-gratia in favour of Khan which, he said, was too meagre to meet the expenditure of his treatment.

In 2015, he approached the court seeking its intervention to provide him Rs 15 lakh by way of compensation for 85 percent of his permanent disability suffered by him.

The government took a stand before the single judge that the ex-gratia amount of Rs 75,000 had already been sanctioned in favour of Khan. It also said that because of the injury suffered Khan had not lost his source of income. Being a government employee, Khan had been receiving a regular salary and would receive a pension after he would demit office on superannuation, the government said.

In its decision, the single judge bench concluded that Khan, who had lost his right arm, had been deprived of a pain-free life and would not be in a position to supplement his source of income after retirement. The court granted him a compensation of Rs 10 lakh in lump sum while deciding his plea on June 9, 2023.

The government challenged this judgment on the ground that Khan was a government employee and, therefore, the injury suffered by him did not adversely affect his source of livelihood – salary. It also said that the single judge had not indicated the yardstick which it applied to work out the compensation of Rs 10 lakh in favour of Khan.

“We are of the considered opinion that the view taken by the Writ Court (single judge), in the context of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees life and personal liberty of a citizen, is unexceptionable,” the division bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Puneet Gupta said after hearing Khan’s counsel, R A Khan and the government through its counsel.

The bench observed that Khan was serving as a helper in the Forest Department and therefore, was entitled to salary. The court also noted that it was not in dispute that the official suffered injury which ultimately resulted in amputation of his right arm during his employment.

The court said that the official, who was made to live the rest of his life without a right arm, has suffered immense loss in terms of amenities of life.

While the court observed that Khan would not be in a position to supplement his small amount of pension by doing any menial job after his retirement without the right arm, it said he would face the stigma of being a person without the right arm for the rest of his life.

It also could not be denied that because of the injury, which ultimately resulted in the amputation of his right arm, Khan suffered huge mental pain and agony, the court said.

“In such circumstances, the compensation of Rs 10  lakh, in addition to Rs. 75,000, as ex-gratia, cannot, by any stretch of reasoning, be said to be exorbitant or irrational,” the court said and dismissed the government’s appeal.