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Supreme Court rejects Centres appeal

denying benefit to disabled soldiers
Written by Utkarsh Anand | New Delhi | Posted: December 12, 2014 9:52 am
They are in the line of fire. They sacrifice their life for you and for us. This is the least you
could do for them. It was the message by the Supreme Court to the Centre, which was fighting
against the ex-servicemen of Army over a modest increase in their disability pension.
Coming to the rescue of around 15,000 soldiers, the court rejected an appeal by the government
against an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which had extended the benefits of an
extra amount in their pensions on account of disability due to service conditions.
On Wednesday, a bench led by Chief Justice of India H L Dattu expressed its disgruntlement
over the governments insistence on denying the benefit to the soldiers on the ground that it
would burden the exchequer with an additional Rs. 1500 crore.
So what? The government can have at least this much of budget for its soldiers who are dying
for the people of this country everyday. What is the point of having these memorials and placards
saluting our defence personnel if you litigate agianst the disabled soldiers till the Supreme Court.
You should pay them, said the bench, also comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and A K Sikri.
With the writing on the wall, the governments law officer chose not to argue the appeal further
and said they would comply with the order. The bench disposed of around 880 appeals against
the AFT order on this issue.
Among those who will be benfitted by this order is also Armys former Vice-Chief Lt Gen Vijay
Oberoi, who lost his leg in a gun battle in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war. Oberoi soldiered on
without any financial benefit whilst in service but was categorised as 70 per cent disabled when
he retired as the armys vice chief in 2001.
When the 5th Pay Commission enhanced this to 75 per cent, the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
refused to pay. On Oberois petition, the Chandigarh bench of the AFT, in 2010 allowed broadbanding benefits to all disabled personnel irrespective of when they left service.
Under the broad-banding policy, three bands were to judge disability across the board. Up to
50 per cent disability, a person was to be given the benefits of a 50 percent disability holder; a
person with 51-75 per cent disability was to be given 75 per cent disability benefits; while a
person with 76-100 per cent disability was to be given 100 per cent disability benefits. The
policy was introduced to avoid subjectivity and variance in calculating disability percentage.
This broad-banding was accepted and implemented by the MoD but the benefits were granted to
only those who were removed from service by the government on medical grounds, and not to
those who retired after their full service. The AFT removed this anomaly and held that all the
soldiers shall get the benefit under the policy.
The Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW), which comes under the MoD and looks
into the grievances and other pension matters of retired defence personnel, filed an appeal
against the AFT judgement in February 2012 despite an adverse opinion by the Army
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