HC allows disability pension to ex-military man with diabetes

The Punjab and Haryana high court has ruled that unless there is evidence that a soldier contracted diabetes during his military service “by consuming prohibited foods or never engaging in physical activities”, authorities cannot deny him disability pension after he is discharged from the Army due to health issues. on grounds.

The court rejected the objection filed by the central government seeking directions to quash the orders passed here by the Armed Forces Tribunal allowing a former soldier’s claim for grant of disability pension.

According to the case details, the former soldier was conscripted into the military on January 20, 2003, and was discharged in the medical category on October 31, 2019, “at his own request, before the end of his engagement period.” “due to disability– Major Depressive Episode and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus”.

At the time of his discharge from military service, his disability was assessed at 50% compound lifetime, but the same was deemed neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service.

Accordingly, the defendant’s request for disability pension was rejected with a letter dated 4 November 2019.

In its plea in the high court, the Center argued that his disability was not only genetically linked but also a lifestyle disease that developed while serving in the peace zone.

The high court, however, observed that at the time of enlistment, the medical board should have given a note about the disease, including whether it was genetically linked and whether it was likely to start, but no such thing was done in this case.

The high court also ruled that the regulations did not specify that the onset of the disease in a peace zone could not be attributed to military service.

It ruled that “…even if the onset of the disease in question in the present defendant occurred in a peace zone, it must be declared that the onsets in question were aggravated by or attributable to military service.”

The court said that the cause of the disease in the ‘Type II Diabetes Mellitus’ generation was due to poor eating habits and lack of physical activity.

However, the high court ruled that “the explosion/causes in question cannot be attributed to the present defendant (soldier) unless evidence is presented that he consumed prohibited foods or never engaged in physical activity.”

Since it is not stated that the evidence in question will be presented or discussed, the fixing of the reasons in question to the present defendant rather than to the medical board appears to have been done in a highly hypothetical manner.

The Defendant filed his first objection before the Appeals Committee. However, the same was denied in a letter dated March 5, 2020.

The defendant subsequently appealed the decision of March 5, 2020, before the Second Board of Appeals; Here, according to the decision dated March 15, 2021, the decision that the first disability, that is, ‘Severe Depressive Episode’, was accepted as aggravated to military service at 40% for life was appealed. but he dismissed the second disability – ‘Diabetes Mellitus Type II’ – as being neither aggravated nor attributable to military service.

Feeling aggrieved, the soldier appealed to the relevant Armed Forces Court and objected to the accepted rejection decision. His application was allowed to be made by decision dated 22 April 2022, and the AFT determined that the applicant was entitled to receive disability benefits, which included a disability element and a service element.

Aggrieved by the AFT orders, the petitioner (central government) moved the high court here.