Express Impact: Govt clears free medical treatment for officer cadets disabled during training

While a decision on this has been in the pipeline, the development comes just over a fortnight after The Indian Express published reports on the plight of these cadets who were discharged from the country’s top military training institutes on medical grounds — and have since been battling severe disability with shattered dreams and poor benefits.

As reported by The Indian Express on August 11, all that these officer cadets get now is an ex gratia payment of up to Rs 40,000 per month, depending on the extent of disability — an amount that falls far short of basic needs, with medical expenses alone costing, on an average, nearly Rs 50,000 per month or more.

Around 500 officer cadets have been medically discharged from top institutes, such as the National Defence Academy (NDA) and Indian Military Academy (IMA) since 1985, due to varying degrees of disability incurred during training. At the NDA alone, around 20 such cadets were medically discharged in just the past five years, between 2021 and July 2025.

On August 18, the Supreme Court had sought the response of the Centre and the Armed Forces in a suo motu case based on The Indian Express reports.

In its order issued on Friday, the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW), under the MoD, stated that the grant of medical facilities under the ECHS to officer cadets “who are invalidated from training on medical grounds due to causes attributable to or aggravated by military training” has been sanctioned.

According to sources, the Ministry of Finance cleared the MoD’s proposal in this regard earlier this week.

The order mentioned that the scheme would be free for such cadets, which means that the one-time subscription fee of Rs 1.2 lakh, applicable to ex-servicemen officers, would not be charged from these cadets for joining the ECHS scheme.

This facility is, however, only available for the affected cadets. The order, addressed to the Chief of Defence Staff and the three service chiefs, mentions that sanction is granted as a “special dispensation and shall not be quoted as a precedence”.

The cadets have long been seeking a disability pension and ESM status from the government. An ESM status would have granted them not only ECHS benefits, but also provided them with career resettlement options. The decision on the grant of ECHS benefits takes care of one of the issues in their long-drawn fight.

In a statement on Friday, the MoD noted that the government has approved quality medical care for such cadets without creating a precedent for other categories, considering the humanitarian nature and financial burden on families. “While a small number of cadets annually are affected, the financial and emotional burden on their families is significant,” the statement noted.

“In addition, based on the extent of disability (20 per cent to 100 per cent), a monthly ex-gratia disability award is also made available to such cadets. With this approval, these cadets will now be eligible to avail cashless and capless healthcare facilities under ECHS,” it said.

The Indian Express had reported that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had approved a key proposal that would have led to a nearly 50 per cent increase in the monthly ex gratia awarded to such cadets. The proposal calculates the service component of ex gratia payment as 50 per cent of the stipend, thus increasing the amount from the current Rs 9,000 to around Rs 28,000.

However, despite the Defence Minister’s approval, the proposal still awaits implementation 17 months later. The MoD is waiting for a green light for the proposal, which will require an additional compensation of about Rs 11.13 crore per year, from the Ministry of Finance.