April 6, 2010 2:02:36 am
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that Army personnel will be entitled to disability pension if injured in an accident while on annual/casual leave.
As of now,Army personnel who suffer injury during annual leave are denied disability pension.
The order of the Full Bench of the High Court comprising Justices A K Goel,Alok Singh and K Kannan is significant as it disagrees with a judgment given by Full Bench of the Delhi HC on the same issue. With two Full Benches having divergent judgments on the issue,the question of law is all set to be decided by the Supreme Court.
In its 25-page judgment,the Full Bench made it clear that an Army personnel who suffers an injury or meets with an accident during leave will be entitled to disability pension only if the activity,during which he suffers the injury,is compatible with a military activity. For instance,if an Army personnel meets with an accident on leave,he is entitled to disability pension. But he will not be entitled to disability pension if he is injured while engaged in an activity which is not compatible with military service,or gets drunk and enters into a brawl.
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The order came on two set of petitions filed by the Union of India against two Army personnel namely former sepoy Sumanjit Singh and former naib subedar Khusbash Singh.
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