Kamlesh Kumari vs Union Of India And Others

The applicant, mother of Respondent No. 4, Capt Sagar Gaur, has invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 14 of the Armed Forces

Tribunal Act, 2007 and the prayer made in the application reads as under:

(a) To direct the respondents to endorse the applicant as dependent in all official records.

(b) To also direct the respondents provide the entitled facilities to the applicant in terms of dependent card, CSD (I) card ECHS Card.

(c) To pass any other relief which the Hon'ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

It is the case of the applicant that Respondent No. 4 being her son is to take care of her and maintain her the aforesaid benefits which are claimed

by her as the same were denied to her by the impugned order dated 9th March, 2019 on instructions from Respondent No. 4.

When the matter came up for consideration before the Coordinate Bench of this Tribunal on 11th July, 2019, we are informed that looking to the

nature of the dispute, it was thought appropriate to direct Respondents Nos. 1 to 3 to settle the issue projected through mediation. When mediation

was not held as returned on 26th August, 2019, the matter was adjourned for today to consider the result of the mediation to be held. Today, we are

informed by learned counsel for the respondents, Ms. Barkha Babbar, that Respondent No. 4 is present in Court personally, mediation has failed and

Respondent No. 4 expressed his unwillingness to accede to the prayer of the applicant. It seems to be his contention that she is not dependent upon

him and he is not liable to grant any benefit to her out of the service benefits accruing to him.

We have considered the submissions made and for the present, we deem it appropriate that interest of justice would be met in case, looking to the

nature of dispute that has come up for consideration before us, mediation into the matter by expert mediators may serve the cause of justice. We are

prima fade of the view that the legal issues involved in the matter may be beyond the jurisdiction of this Court, the dispute being a family dispute

between members of the family, only to help the applicant, a woman seeking justice, we are adopting the course of requesting parties to take up the

issue in mediation before a Competent Mediating Body. Apart from that, we have no intention of going into various aspects of the matter, at this stage,

in these proceedings.

As detailed hereinabove, only with a view to explore the possibility of amicably resolving the dispute between a mother and a son, we direct the

office to forward photocopy of the entire documents available on record to the Incharge of Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre

(Samadhan), 4th Floor, Administrative Block, Delhi High Court, Sher Shah Road, New Delhi, and we further request the Incharge of the Centre to

notice the parties concerned and try to mediate into the issue so as to amicably resolve the same, if possible.

For the sake of repetition, we may clarify that we have not expressed any opinion on the merits of the matter, we have not gone into the issue

exercising our jurisdiction, we are not even looking into the issue of maintainability of this application and for the present, looking to the nature of

dispute, we have adopted the aforesaid course of action. Parties are at liberty to respond to the notice issued from the Mediation Centre and

thereafter proceed in accordance with law.

With the aforesaid, the matter stands disposed of.