Delhi HC imposes cost on govt for delay in implementing Armed Forces Tribunal order on disability pension for woman captain

“We find that the impugned order was passed by the learned Tribunal on 17.08.2023. Instead of complying with the same, the petitioners have chosen to challenge it after the lapse of more than one year, thereby causing further agony and pain to the respondent. The petitioners shall, therefore, pay costs of Rs 15,000 to the respondent,” the court said.

Capt Anamika Dutta joined the Army as a short service commission officer in 1996. She was prematurely released from service on September 24, 2002, due to lower backache after being placed in a low medical category.

The woman officer contended before the AFT that, due to her shooting skills, she was attached to the Army Marksmanship Unit. During her training, she strained herself and suffered back pain. However, it was only upon her posting to Leh in the 3 Infantry Division Ordinance (DOU), a high-altitude area, from April 2001 that she experienced severe backache.

Extreme inhospitable service conditions seriously affected her health, impacting her back. She was hospitalised in Leh and in Chandigarh military hospitals before being released from service at her own request due to her medical condition.

The government contended before the high court that the AFT had delivered an erroneous verdict favouring the woman captain, asserting that the “low backache” and “fibro fasciitis” she suffered from at the time of her release were not attributable to or aggravated by service conditions.

The government argued that the Release Medical Board (RMB) proceedings specifically recorded that the woman officer suffered from lower backache even before joining the service. However, the counsel for the woman officer contended that this assertion was not supported by any documentation and was merely a self-included insertion in the RMB proceedings.

The counsel submitted that the woman officer entered service in 1996 and was discharged in 2002 and that in the previous medical board proceedings, there was no mention of her suffering from “low backache” and “fibro fasciitis”.

The high court noted that the basis for the finding by the RMB had neither been provided by the medical board nor produced by the government. “At the time of induction of an officer into service, the officer is required to undergo a rigorous medical assessment, and it is only if the officer is found to be fully fit that the officer is then inducted into service. In terms of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Dharamvir Singh (supra), in case there is no mention of a prior medical condition of the officer at the time of induction, a presumption has to be drawn that the disability suffered was post the induction. The only question thereafter that remains is whether the disability suffered can be said to be attributable to or aggravated by service conditions,” the court said in its order.

The bench also upheld the broad-banding of the percentage of disability of the petitioner to 50 per cent.

“A detailed analysis of the applicant’s documents shows that the applicant was an active shooter and was posted to 3 DOU, Leh, from April 2001 till May 2002. In 2002, the applicant was hospitalised owing to Low Back Ache and Fibro Fasciitis, which further led to her discharge in the same year. The RMB records of the applicant showcase the disability percentage between 11-14 per cent and mark the onset in the year 2001 at Leh. Since the disability was not detected at the time of her entry into service and since the onset was recorded to be at Leh, this would attract the provision of the above-mentioned rule, thereby making the applicant’s disability attributable to and aggravated by service and entitling her to the disability element of pension,” the court said.