Unsubstantiated Medical Board report cannot deny ex-serviceman disability pension: HC

In a significant judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that an unsubstantiated Medical Board report cannot take away the right of an ex-serviceman to claim the benefit of disability pension and that too, by rounding off the disability from 37 per cent to 50 per cent.

The court made the observation while dismissing an appeal filed by the Government of India challenging an order passed by the Armed Forces Tribunal, Regional Bench, Chandigarh.

The Tribunal, in its order dated December 13, 2023, had allowed the benefit of disability pension to ex-serviceman Naik Kuldeep Singh, along with the benefit of rounding off of the disability element from 37 per cent to 50 per cent from the day of his discharge.

Counsel of the Government of India relied upon the Medical Board’s report to contend that though, the disability of ‘Dyslipidemia’ at 10 per cent and ‘Coronary Artery Disease’ (chronic stable angina with normal LV function and normal coronaries with slow flow)’ at 30 per cent (compositely 37 per cent), has been found to be existing in the respondent but that disability has been held to be ‘neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service’.

Hence, it was argued that the grant of benefit of disability pension to the respondent at 50 per cent for life by the Tribunal is incorrect.

After hearing the arguments, the Bench of Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi and Justice Deepak Manchanda said that the ex-serviceman had completed 19 years of service when he was released from service on February 28, 2021.

The court observed that at the time when the respondent joined the armed forces on January 30, 2002, he was medically examined and found not to be suffering from any such disease on the basis of which he was ultimately discharged from service. The Bench said this fact has been made the basis by the Tribunal while granting the benefit to the respondent.

The court held that since the disease was detected during the course of service so it has to be attributed to military service. It further rules that an unsubstantiated report of Medical Board cannot take away the right of the respondent to claim the benefit of disability pension and that too, by rounding off the disability from 37 per cent to 50 per cent.

“Hence, in the absence of any perversity being pointed out in the order dated December 13, 2023 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 and the writ petition is accordingly dismissed,” the High Court held.