Chandigarh, November 27
Over 51 years after an Army jawan was discharged from service on medical grounds and almost 20 years after he died, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has ruled that his widow is entitled to receive family pension.
The jawan was enrolled in the Army in November 1965 and invalided out of service in July 1971 due to disability after rendering only five years and eight months of service. His disability was assessed at 6–10 percent for life but considered as neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service.
His claim for disability pension was rejected by the authorities in 1971 and an appeal filed by him against the order was also rejected by the government in 1974. He passed away in April 2003. His widow moved the AFT, which took cognizance of the matter after condoning the delay in filing the case in March 2022.
The widow’s counsel had contended that at the time of enrolment, the jawan was found mentally and physically fit for service in the Army and there is no note in the service documents that he was suffering from any disease at the time of entry. He averred that since the disease was contacted during service, his disability should be considered as attributable to and aggravated by military service.
The respondents had contended that as per rules, he was granted death-cum-retirement gratuity, invalid gratuity, balance of provident fund at the time of invalidment. Further, disability below 20 percent is not entitled disability pension.
The AFT’s bench comprising Justice Umesh Chandra Srivastava and Vice Admiral Abhay Raghunath Karve observed that as per the Pension Regulations for the Army, the jawan was entitled to disability pension, being a case of invalidment. In this case, though the disability was assessed as less than 20 percent, he was entitled for grant of disability pension till his life time as he had been invalided out of service.
Referring to an earlier judgement of the Supreme Court, the bench said that if a person is invalided out of service with less than 20 percent disability, it shall be presumed that the disability is or more than 20 percent.
Further, personnel who had been invalided out with disability pension whose percentage of disability subsequently fell below 20 percent, were also given the service element of pension from the date the disability fell below 20 percent. While the benefit was initially for those invalided out with effect from January 1, 1973, it was later extended to pre-1973 cases by the Ministry of Defence.
The bench, however, held that since the jawan has died, disability pension cannot be granted to the widow. She will only be entitled to the service element of family pension for life with effect from the date of death of her husband.
The AFT has directed the authorities concerned to give effect to this order within a period of four months, though the arrears of pension would be restricted to three years preceding the date of filing the case in accordance with directives of the apex court.
