Soldier who injured knee in J-K and later lost his leg gets disability pension after 15 years

Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, April 28

A soldier whose knee was permanently damaged while serving in Jammu and Kashmir and later lost his leg in an accident has been granted disability pension about 15 years after leaving the service with the help of judicial intervention by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT).

Manjit Singh from Ludhiana, who was recruited into the Sikh Light Infantry in 1999, had been invalided out of the Army in 2007 without any kind of pension due to the unique circumstances of his disability.

He had suffered a permanent injury to his right knee in 2003 while deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, which was declared as “attributable to military service”. Later, due to a twist of fate, he met with a road accident while on annual leave in which his right leg was completely crushed and had to be amputated. The amputation was then declared “not attributable to military service” since he was on annual leave.

At the time of his invalidation from service, the Medical Board could not assess the percentage of the earlier injury to his knee that had been attributable to service since the right leg itself had been amputated later in the accident that was held non-attributable to service. As a result of this unexpected complication, he was refused disability pension because of non-availability of percentage of his attributable disability.

While the Army and the Sikh Light Regimental Records Office tried their best to process his case for disability pension, the case was finally rejected by the pension authorities, after which he approached the AFT.

The disabled soldier averred that it was clear that his knee injury was attributable to service and also that he was permanently low medical category and hence his disability percentage was to be treated as minimum 50 per cent  as per government guidelines for boarded-out soldiers.

The Supreme Court had, in the case of Sukhwinder Singh versus Union of India, held that soldiers could not be invalided out on medical grounds without any pension or source of livelihood and this should be of concern to every citizen of India.

Agreeing with this contention, the AFT’s Chandigarh Bench comprising Justice Mohammad Tahir and Vice Admiral HCS Bisht ruled that he was entitled to disability pension by computing the percentage as a minimum of 50 per cent even when the exact percentage could not be assessed due to the loss of his leg.

Experts on the subject point out that disabled soldiers, who are invalided out without pension or disability pension, are neither entitled to benefits applicable to ex-servicemen, nor medical facilities or any other support. The courts have often come to the rescue of many such disabled soldiers suffering from physical and psychiatric disabilities and living in dire straits.

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