Stress of Army service makes heart attack during leave attributable to service: HC

Heart attack does not occur instantaneously but is a result of constant stress, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has held, while making it clear that an Army man’s death due to a cardiac arrest during annual leave was attributable to military service.

The ruling by the Bench of Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi and Justice Vikas Suri came on a petition filed by the Union of India challenging an order passed in March 2023 by Chandigarh Armed Forces Tribunal’s Regional Bench, holding that the Army officer’s death due to heart attack was attributable to the military service.

The UoI stand in the matter was that the man was on annual leave from April 9, 2007, to April 23, 2007, when he suffered heart attack. As such, it could not be attributable to the military service and the tribunal’s order was required to be set aside.

The Bench asserted that the Army man had served for 10 years when he came home on 15 days’ annual leave and within two days — on April 11, 2007 — suffered a heart attack and died the same day. The Court of Inquiry held that the death was not attributable to military service, as he was on annual leave when he suffered a heart attack.

“It may be noticed that heart attack does not occur instantaneously, but is a result of the constant stress suffered by the patient concerned. For 10 years, he was serving the Army and keeping in view the various postings and the stress which was caused, it can be easily co-related that the stress and strain which was related to the job profile of the husband of respondent was responsible for the death,” the Bench asserted.

Rejecting the UoI’s argument that the death was not service-related as it occurred during leave, the Bench cited “Union of India vs Dharambir Singh” case to reiterate that even deaths on leave must be tested for their nexus with service.

The Bench added that the apex court had held that the cause of the death and the circumstances were required to be appreciated even when the death occurred during the leave “so as to arrive at conclusion whether the same can be attributable to the military service”.

Referring to the facts of the case in hand, the Bench added that the tribunal rightly appreciated all the facts brought on record to conclude that the death was due to heart attack within two days of availing annual leave, “which is attributable to the military service as at the time of recruitment in the Army, he was in shape when medically checked and no such disease was diagnosed”.

Dismissing the plea, the Bench asserted: “In the absence of any perversity being pointed out in the impugned order either on the basis of the facts or the settled principle of law, no ground is made out for any interference by this court in the facts and circumstances of the present case”.