Supreme Court takes suo motu cognizance of Express report on struggles of officer cadets disabled in military training

Sources said that a bench presided by Justice Nagarathna took cognizance of the reports and placed it before Chief Justice of India B R Gavai. The Chief Justice then decided that the bench presided by Justice Nagarathna will hear the petition, the sources said.

In its series of two reports published August 11, The Indian Express found that around 500 officer cadets have been medically discharged from military institutes such as NDA 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.

This newspaper reported that while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had okayed a proposal to increase the ex gratia awarded in such cases (a maximum of about Rs 40,000 per month currently), the file was stuck. The parents of these cadets told The Indian Express that the ex gratia was far short of what they needed for their sons who required lifelong care and attention.

According to rules, these cadets are not entitled to the status of ex-servicemen (ESM), which would have made them eligible under the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) for free treatment at military facilities and empanelled hospitals, since their disabilities took place during training before they were commissioned as officers.

And, unlike soldiers in this category who are entitled to ESM status, all that these officer cadets get now is an ex gratia payment of up to Rs 40,000 per month depending on extent of disability — an amount that falls far short of basic needs, they say, with medical expenses alone costing, on an average, nearly Rs 50,000 per month or more.

Responding to The Indian Express reports, two service chiefs — former Army Chief General M M Naravane (retd) and former Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash (retd) — had called for the Government to absorb the cost of care needed for such cadets while ensuring reasonable compensation and a robust health insurance along with adequate safety during training.