Bone tumour detected long after enrolment attributable to military service, rules AFT

Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, September 3

The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has ruled that the onset of bone tumour is to be attributed to military service if an individual was free from such a disease at the time of enrolment in the Army.

Granting disability pension to a soldier whose thumb had to be amputated, the Tribunal set aside the earlier departmental order rejecting his claim for benefits and said that he is entitled to 60 per cent disability for life.

The soldier was enrolled in 2004 and discharged in low medical category in 2019. He had suffered two tumour related disabilities after having served for 14 years and, in the process, had lost his right thumb.

The release medical board assessed his composite disabilities at 36 percent for life but opined them to be neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service. Therefore, he was not entitled to disability pension.

The army maintained that the first onset of the disability was in December, 2015 at Kanpur and the disability was a bone tumour likely related to genetic or chromosomalcomponent and thesecond disability, detected in September 2016 at Jaisalmer, was a benign tumour.

“However, considering the facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the opinion that this reasoning of the release medical board for denying disability element of pension to applicant is not convincing and doesn’t reflect the complete truth on the matter,” the Tribunal’s bench comprising Justice Ravindra Nath Kakkar and Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain ruled.

Observing that the disability had started after more than14 years of service, the Bench was of the considered opinion that the benefit of doubt in these circumstances should be given to the soldiers in accordance with the law on the subject as laid down by the Supreme Court in earlier judgements.

Both the disabilities of the soldier should be considered as aggravated by military service and he would get the disability element at 36 per cent for life which, as per existing regulations, would be rounded off to 50 per cent, the Bench ruled.

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