Fit at enrolment, diabetic after 27-year service: Court upholds Army veteran’s disability pension

“Once at the time of enrolment, respondent was medically examined and was found to be fit in all aspects and it was only during his service period that he was found to be suffering from disability of ‘Diabetes Mellitus Type-II, E-14’ that being so, the said disability has to be attributed to the military service and the unsubstantiated report of medical board cannot take away the right of respondent to claim the benefit of disability pension and that too, by rounding off the disability from 20 per cent to 50 per cent,” the high court said on May 29.

Justices Harsimran Singh Sethi and Deepak Manchanda pronounced the order on May 29.

‘Can’t deny benefit of rounding off’

• It is a conceded fact that at the time when the respondent was discharged from service in August 2021, he had already rendered approximately 27 years of service with the petitioners, the Union of India.
• As for the grievance raised by petitioners about the grant of the benefit of disability pension to the respondent, the judgment in Dharamvir Singh vs Union of India and others should be noted.
• In a case where Army personnel are found to be fit at the time of enrolment, and have later been found to be contracted with a disease, the same is presumed to have been contracted during the time such personnel were rendering service, and as such, it is to be attributed to military service or be regarded as having been aggravated by military service.
• And the said presumption in favour of Army personnel emerges from Rule 5 and 9 of the ‘Entitlement Rules for Causality Pensionary Awards, 1982 ‘, which gives the benefit of presumption in favour of Army personnel.
• With regard to the grievance of petitioners qua the benefit of rounding off of disability granted to the respondent, the same issue has been settled by the Supreme Court of India in Union of India and others vs Ram Avtar.

• It has been held that an armed forces personnel is entitled to be granted the benefit of rounding off about disability pension, irrespective of the fact that he was invalidated out of service, or retired on attaining the age of superannuation or on completion of the tenure of his engagement, if found to be suffering from some disability which is attributable or aggravated by the military service.
• Counsel for the petitioners has not been able to dispute the said proposition of law, having been settled by the Supreme Court of India in Ram Avtar’s case to the effect that the percentage of disability is to be rounded off, and in the present case, the disability of 20 per cent is to be rounded off to 50 per cent for life.
• In a recent judgment in Union of India and others vs Reet MP Singh and another, the Supreme Court, by placing reliance upon Ram Avtar’s case as well as Bijender Singh vs Union of India and others, has again reiterated that the benefit of rounding off the disability pension cannot be denied.

27 years of service, legal battle

The respondent former sergeant joined the armed forces in August 1994 and was discharged from service on August 15, 2021. He had already rendered approximately 27 years of service with the petitioners, the Union of India.

At the time of joining, he was medically examined and was found not to be suffering from any such disease and was found to be medically fit, but during the continuance of his service, he was found to be suffering from disability of ‘Diabetes Mellitus Type-II, E-14’.

The tribunal granted the benefit of disability pension along with the benefit of rounding off the disability pension from 20 per cent to 50 per cent for life.

Following this, the Centre has challenged the tribunal’s order in the high court, contending that though the disability of ‘Diabetes Mellitus Type-II, E-14’ existed in the respondent, the said disability has been assessed by the medical board at 20 per cent for life and the same was assessed to be ‘neither attributable to military service nor aggravated by the military service’.

Representing the Centre, senior panel counsel Rohit Verma further argued that the grant of the benefit of disability pension to the respondent by placing reliance upon the judgment of the tribunal in Union of India and others versus Col Balbir Singh (Retd) and other connected cases is arbitrary and illegal. He submitted that even the benefit of rounding off the disability pension has been wrongly granted to the respondent.