The Delhi High Court has directed the Border Security Force (BSF) to pay Rs 10 lakh as ex-gratia compensation to the widow of a head constable who had died due to a heart attack during active duty at the Line of Control in Kutch. The BSF had argued that the death in this case did not have anything to do with the head constable’s duties. The court, however, held that the human body was “not a switch” and the tension caused during patrol could also have strained the health of the deceased. “A person on active duty, when returns to the barrack after patrolling along the LoC would continue to be stressed for sometime before the adrenaline levels fall and the body is at even metabolism,” noted the court of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Pratibha Rani. [related-post] “The death of a force personnel due to heart attack suffered just after performing actual duty would be a case of an accidental death in the course of performance of duties,” the court held in its judgment issued last week. Head constable Yatinder Singh suffered a heart attack minutes after returning to the barracks after a 6-hour ambush-cum-patrol duty at a border outpost at the LoC in Kutch in 2010. His widow approached the High Court in 2013, after the BSF refused to pay the ex-gratia amount to his family, on grounds that his death had been caused due to a heart attack. The BSF had also claimed that Singh had not died during active duty, but after returning to his barracks. According to two office memorandums issued by the Government of India, Ex-Gratia compensation for “death due to accidents in the course of performance of duty” is Rs 10 lakh. “Psychological injuries can be as debilitating as physical ones.Trauma, stress disorders are not intentionally caused by enemy action, but where a person is deployed for patrolling duty at a border and especially where the relations with the neighbouring country are not very cordial (and we take judicial notice of the fact that though sporadic but tension flares up in the Indo-Pak Line of Control 15 to 20 times each year) the person would be under psychological stress while on actual patrol duty and adrenaline levels would be bound to be high. Stress, be it mental or physical, affects the body metabolism and puts a strain on the heart,” the court held in its ruling.
