The mother of Agniveer Murali Naik, who was killed in cross-border shelling during Operation Sindoor in Jammu & Kashmir, has approached the Bombay High Court alleging that the Agnipath scheme unfairly deprives her family of benefits granted to families of regular soldiers.
The petition, filed by Naik’s mother Jyotibai Naik through advocates Sandesh More, Hemant Ghadigaonkar and Hitendra Gandhi, has challenged the denial of long-term pensionary and welfare entitlements. It argues that Agniveers face identical risks, perform identical duties, and make identical sacrifices as regular soldiers, yet their families are not granted equivalent posthumous benefits.
Naik, recruited into the Indian Army in June 2023, was killed on May 9 in Poonch after the Pakistan Army resorted to heavy artillery and mortar shelling in violation of the ceasefire, as India launched Operation Sindoor following the Pahalgam terror attack.
According to the petition, the Agnipath scheme “expressly excludes Agniveers from post-service pension benefits and other long-term welfare entitlements normally available to regular soldiers.” While the family of a martyred Agniveer receives an ex-gratia of about ₹1 crore, they are not eligible for a regular family pension or several institutional support measures that apply to regular personnel.
The plea states that the petitioner wrote to multiple authorities after her son’s death seeking equal benefits, but has received no response so far. It argues that the scheme creates an “arbitrary and unreasonable classification between Agniveers and regular soldiers without any intelligible differentia,” violating fundamental rights under the Constitution.
The petition clarifies that it does not challenge the Agnipath scheme in its entirety, but only the discriminatory exclusion of Agniveers’ families from full posthumous benefits. It seeks directions to ensure equal pensionary support, welfare measures, and institutional recognition for families of Agniveers who die in service, and to consider extending these benefits to Naik’s family.
The matter is expected to be listed before a division bench of the high court in due course.
