New Delhi [India], March 31 (ANI): The Delhi High Court, in a recent ruling regarding disability pensions for soldiers, underscored the inherent challenges and risks of military service.
While granting disability pensions to two soldiers, the bench of Justice C Harishankar and Justice Ajay Digpaul acknowledged that the potential for illness and disability is an inevitable reality for those who dedicate themselves to serving the nation.
“The most valiant of soldiers, given the arduous conditions under which they serve, may succumb to physical ailments, sometimes leading to disabling conditions that force them to step away from military duties. In such cases, it is the nation’s moral obligation to offer support and compassion as a gesture of gratitude for the soldier’s selfless service, providing them solace and security in the years to come,” said the bench.
The bench observed that no further elaboration was necessary in the present case. The key elements of the RMB report concerning the respondent had already been emphasized.
The report explicitly acknowledged that the respondent’s Type II Diabetes Mellitus was contracted 30 years after he joined military service, with the disease manifesting during his tenure in the armed forces.
This fact was not contested. However, the report offered minimal evidence to establish that the respondent’s military service was not a contributing factor to his illness.
Since the respondent’s claim was filed within 15 years of his discharge, the responsibility to prove that his military service did not cause the disease remained with the RMB, as outlined in Rule 7 of the 2008 Entitlement Rules. A mere mention that the disease emerged during a peace posting was insufficient to fulfill this responsibility. The Supreme Court has consistently held that RMB reports must be detailed, substantive, and supported by clear reasoning. In this instance, the RMB report failed to meet these criteria.
While the Bench acknowledged that they were not medical experts, they noted that it is widely recognized that diabetes can be triggered and aggravated by stressful living conditions.
Consequently, the fact that the disease emerged during a peace posting cannot be a decisive factor in determining whether it was related to the respondent’s military service.
Under such circumstances, the RMB carries a heightened responsibility to thoroughly investigate the origins of the disease and present unequivocal evidence dissociating its onset from the respondent’s military service.
The court was addressing two appeals filed by the Union of India, challenging the Armed Forces Tribunal’s (AFT) decision to grant disability pensions to two soldiers.
One of the soldiers, Gawas Anil Madso, enlisted in the army in 1985 and served until 2015, when he was discharged after being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes Mellitus. According to the findings of the Release Medical Board (RMB), he was assessed to have a 20 percent lifelong disability but was deemed ineligible for a disability pension.
The bench further observed that the broader circumstances in such cases generally share commonalities.
Typically, the officer or jawan who has suffered a disability or contracted an illness attributed to military service seeks a disability pension.
In some instances, the individual may have been discharged or invalidated due to the illness or disability, whereas in other cases, the pension request is made after leaving military service. Despite these variations, the underlying issue in dispute remains consistent. (ANI)
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