SC: Don’t drag ex-servicemen to court over disability pension

Pulling up the Centre for "dragging" often retired armed forces personnel to courts over disability pension, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked it to frame a policy on the issue.

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Noting that each and every member of the armed forces who was awarded disability pension by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) need not be dragged to the top court, a Bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka said the government should exercise discretion in filing appeals against AFT orders.

“As in cases of tax matters, we are of the view that the government must evolve a policy. There has to be some scrutiny before a decision is taken to drag members of the Armed Forces to the Supreme Court. We call upon the Union of India to disclose whether it is going to take such a policy decision before the next date”, it said, posting the matter for further hearing on April 3.

"You say whether you are willing to frame a policy. And if you say no then we will have to start imposing heavy costs whenever we find that the appeal appears to be frivolous," the Bench told the Centre's counsel, while hearing the Centre’s appeal an AFT order granted disability pension to retired radio fitter Sgt. Rohitash Kumar Sharma.

“Several appeals are being filed by the Union of India in this court challenging the orders of the Armed Forces Tribunal wherein the benefit of disability pension has been granted to members of the armed forces when they are invalidated after working for several years. Each and every member of the armed forces who gets the relief of grant of disability pension from the tribunal need not be dragged to this Court”, it said.

“There has to be some pragmatic view. An army personnel works for 15-20 years and suppose there is some disability, and an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal directs payment of disability pension. Why should they be dragged to the Supreme Court?" asked the Bench which also included Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.

Noting that "frivolous” appeals were being filed by the Centre, the Bench said it could affect the morale of the armed forces. “We are also interested in maintaining the morale of the armed forces. Now members of the armed forces notice that the armed forces get rid of their services, for everything first they have to go to the Tribunal and even if they go to the Tribunal and succeed they are dragged to Supreme Court. What will be the effect of this on members of the armed forces?” it wondered.

Sgt. Rohitash Kumar Sharma – who joined the Indian Air Force on November 14, 1995 -- was discharged on November 30, 2015. He was assessed with a 15-19 percent disability by the Release Medical Board (RMB) on April 27, 2015 which found his severe obstructive sleep apnea neither attributable to nor aggravated (NANA) by service and his disability pension claim was turned down on July 8, 2015. But finally, he was granted disability pension by the AFT which has been challenged before the top court by the Centre.