The Army is upset over a Delhi High Court decision which, in effect, entitles almost every soldier or officer to pass off as a disabled person and claim whatever special provisions go with that status.A bench, headed by Justice Vijender Jain, interpreted an Army rule last month to mean that anybody who has ever received any injury could call himself forever a disabled person.Rejecting the contention of the Army that there is a difference between injury and disability, Justice Jain said: ‘‘In terms of the aforesaid rule, if injury is sustained that results into disability.’’The court held that that the Army was ‘‘misconceived’’ in arguing that a person who had been injured at some point could not seek a disability certificate after he recovered and became fit once again.‘‘If a person sustains injury, that injury leads to disablement,’’ Justice Jain said, adding specifically that ‘‘disablement may be of temporary character or of permanent character.’’The high court said all this while quashing court martial proceedings against a Brigadier accused of producing a false disability certificate for securing admission for his daughter in an engineering college affiliated to the Delhi University.Brig J K Bansal is said to have hurt his back way back in 1989 while serving at a peace station. The Army took objection to the disability certificate he procured in 2000 for his daughter’s admission as he had received three promotions since his injury on the strength of his being fighting fit or ‘‘in Shape I.’’Dismissing the Army’s objection as being of ‘‘no consequence,’’ the high court said that even the Delhi University rules on the disability quota ‘‘do not require that a person should be permanently disabled or incapacitated for all times to come. What is not in the rule cannot be interpreted or substituted by (the Army brass) at their own whims and fancies.’’The Army is learnt to be worried about the far-reaching implications of this judgment delivered on May 18. It has therefore not so far complied with another extraordinary direction in the same judgment that within a week the Army should announce the result of a promotion board which considered Brig Bansal for the next rank, namely, Major General.The Army’s reluctance to give him another promotion prompted Brig Bansal to file a contempt petition before the high court. The matter is due to come up for hearing on July 5. Meanwhile, the Army is planning to file a special leave petition before the Supreme Court so that the high court verdict is set aside and the disability benefits are restricted to permanently disabled servicemen.
