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Rehabilitation of disabled officer cadets: Supreme Court gives Govt six more weeks to reply

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan granted the government more time after Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said the “recommendations of the three services are positive” and sought 6 more weeks to complete the exercise.

2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Dec 17, 2025 08:20 AM IST

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The SC had taken up the matter suo motu based on reports in The Indian Express on plight of officer cadets discharged from top military institutes due to disabilities during training.

The Supreme Court Tuesday allowed the Centre’s request for more time to respond to the recommendations of the Amicus Curiae in the matter of officer cadets who suffered disability during training, including on the aspect of rehabilitating them.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan granted the government more time after Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said the “recommendations of the three services are positive” and sought 6 more weeks to complete the exercise. The bench accordingly adjourned the matter to January 28, 2026.

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“Learned ASG also submitted that the recommendations of the three services are positive and therefore the consideration by the two ministries is required. Hence we adjourn this matter to 28 January. It is expected by then sufficient progress will be made with regard to the consideration and approval of recommendations made by the respondents,” the bench said in its order.

Bhati said a scheme will now have to be formulated with the approval of the Defence Ministry, which will take a final view of things in consultation with the Finance Ministry and submit the proposal to the court. Flagging concern over process getting delayed, Senior Advocate Rekha Palli, Amicus Curiae in the case, pointed out similar recommendations were made by sub-committees in the past too. SC had taken up the matter suo motu based on reports in The Indian Express on plight of officer cadets discharged from top military institutes due to disabilities during training.