J&K High Court Upholds AFT Order Granting Disability Pension to Ex-Soldier
Jammu, Feb 17, KNT: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has dismissed a petition filed by the Union of India challenging an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal that granted disability pension to a former soldier diagnosed with Schizophrenia.
A division bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar upheld the 2022 decision of the Armed Forces Tribunal, which had allowed the ex-serviceman disability pension at 50 per cent after rounding off.
The soldier had been enrolled in the Indian Army in July 2001 in a medically fit condition and was discharged in July 2018. Prior to discharge, a Release Medical Board assessed him as suffering from Schizophrenia with a 40 per cent disability for life. However, the Board concluded that the condition was neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service, leading to rejection of his pension claim.
The Tribunal later overturned that finding, prompting the Centre to move the High Court.
In its order dated February 13, the High Court observed that it was undisputed the soldier was found physically and mentally fit at the time of enrolment. The court held that since the disease manifested during service, the burden lay on the military authorities to establish absence of a causal connection between the disability and service.
The authorities had cited that the onset occurred in a peace area, namely Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh, as justification for denying attributability. The court found this reasoning insufficient and termed the medical opinion vague and cryptic.
The bench ruled that the authorities had failed to discharge the burden of proving disentitlement and that the benefit of ambiguity must go to the soldier. Accordingly, the petition was dismissed, affirming the grant of disability pension. [KNT]
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