If invalided out, disability deemed to be for life: AFT

Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, October 22

Granting disability benefits to a soldier 38 years after discharge from service, the Armed Forces Tribunal has held that if a person was invalided out of service on medical grounds, the disability will deemed to be for life and not for a shorter period as recommended by the medical board.

An Army havildar had been invalided out of service in February 1984 for suffering from epilepsy, after serving for 16 years and four months. An invalidation medical board assessed his disability at 40 per cent for two years and attributed it to have been aggravated by military service.

The Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions), however, rejected his disability claim stating that it did not fulfil the necessary conditions. An appeal filed by him was also dismissed in 1992.

It was in 2017 that he obtained the relevant documents pertaining to his case under the Right to Information Act and thereafter moved the Armed Forces Tribunal, seeking grant of disability pension along with arrears.

In his petition, he had also contended that if his disability was only meant for two years, the Army should have retained him in service in a low medical category in a sheltered appointment and permitted him to complete his term of engagement.

The tribunal’s bench comprising Justice Rajendra Menon and Lt Gen PM Hariz observed that Pension Regulations for the Army state that a low medical category person who is retired or discharged from service for want of alternative employment compatible with his condition shall also be eligible for invalid pension or invalid gratuity.

Also the scale of invalid pension admissible to an employee below the officer rank who has completed 15 years or more of service is equal to the service pension as admissible under normal rules.

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