The decision came on a petition filed by a soldier, Jit Singh, who was invalided out of the Army in the year 1989 without any kind of pension after he sustained a disability while returning to his unit in Ambala from an outpass to visit the market when he was hit by a truck.
Three decades after he was medically boarded out, a disabled soldier has finally got justice.
In a decision that will assist disabled soldiers released from the Army without any kind of pension lead a life of minimum dignity, the Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) comprising Justice MS Chauhan and Lt Gen Munish Sibal has ruled that a disability sustained soldier when proceeding towards his unit from an authorized “outpass” would be held as ‘attributable to military service’ thereby entitling such personnel to disability pension.
The decision came on a petition filed by a soldier, Jit Singh, who was invalided out of the Army in the year 1989 without any kind of pension after he sustained a disability while returning to his unit in Ambala from an outpass to visit the market when he was hit by a truck.
Though it was held that the disability was result of rash and negligent driving of the civil truck, he was denied disability pension by military authorities on the pretext that the disability was not ‘attributable to military service’ since he was on an outpass when the disability was sustained. He was also not granted service pension since he could not complete the qualifying service for regular pension.
In his petition filed in the AFT, Jit Singh had stated that the Supreme Court and High Courts had held that even soldiers disabled while returning from leave to their units were entitled to disability pension and his case was even better since he was not on any kind of leave and was fully on duty and had merely gone to the market on an ‘outpass’ and had suffered the disability while returning to his unit.
Agreeing with his contentions and granting him disability pension three decades after he was invalided out, the AFT has held that beneficial provisions must be interpreted liberally and it was the duty of courts to iron out the creases so that the situation does not lead to absurd consequences, adding that the soldier had gone on an authorized outpass and his returning to his unit had a direct link with military service.
Lawyers familiar with the matter say that such denial of pension is rampant in the defence services however civil government employees do not face this problem since the law prohibits the govt from discharging civilian employees from service on account of sustaining a disability.