Mental disorders after joining can’t be attributed to service: Armed Forces Tribunal

Chandigarh, October 29

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Observing that it is not always possible to detect mental disorders at the time of recruitment, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has held that such conditions arising within six years of joining the Army could not be held attributable to military service.

Pension plea rejected

We are of the opinion that since the disease has started in less than six years of his enrolment, hence by no stretch of imagination it can be concluded that it has been caused by stress and strains of military service. AFT’s Bench

The widow of an Army jawan had approached the AFT seeking disability pension in respect of her late husband, who had joined the Army in March 1982 and was discharged on medical grounds in May 1993 after over nine years of service.

In February 1982, he was first found to be suffering from schizophrenia. A release medical board assessed his disability at 30 per cent for two years and held it neither attributable to nor aggravated (NANA) by military service. “We are of the opinion that since the disease has started in less than six years of his enrolment, hence by no stretch of imagination it can be concluded that it has been caused by stress and strains of military service,” the AFT’s Bench comprising Justice Umesh Chandra Srivastava and Vice Admiral Abhay Raghunath Karve ruled.

The jawan’s claim for grant of disability pension was rejected in January 1992 and he died in July 1995. The claims made by his widow for disability pension were also rejected in 1995 and 1996.

The Bench said that since there was no causal connection between the disease and military service, it was in agreement with the opinion of the medical board that the disease was NANA. The AFT also referred to earlier Supreme Court judgments on denial of pension in similar cases.