Disability pension entitlement includes rounding off percentages for military personnel suffering from service-related disabilities.

Harsimran Singh Sethi, J. (Oral)

1. In the present petition, the challenge is to the impugned order dated 25.10.2023 (Annexure P-1) passed by respondent No.2-Armed Forces Tribunal, Regional Bench, Chandigarh, (for short, ‘the Tribunal’) by which, respondent No.1 has been allowed the benefit of disability pension by rounding off the disability element @ 50% as against 30% w.e.f. 01.01.1996 for life on the ground that the same is perverse.

2. The only argument raised by learned counsel for the petitioners is that respondent No.1 is not entitled to the benefit of rounding off the disability pension from 30% to 50% by placing reliance upon the judgment in Civil Appeal No. 5591-2006 titled as KJS Buttar vs. Union of India and another, decided on 31.03.2011 and Civil Appeal No.418-2012 titled as Union of India and others vs. Ram Avtar , decided on 10.12.2014 is incorrect and the facts of the present case have not been appreciated in correct perspective by the Tribunal while passing the impugned order dated

25.10.2023 (Annexure P-1).

3. We have heard learned counsel for the petitioners and have gone through the case file with his able assistance.

4. It is a conceded fact that at the time when respondent No.1 was discharged from service on 28.02.1993 on completion of his terms of engagement under Army Rule 13(3) Item III (i), he had already rendered 24 years of service with the petitioners-Union of India. It is also a conceded fact that at the time when respondent No. 1 joined the armed forces i.e. 26.02.1969, he was medically examined and was not found suffering from any such disease, on the basis of which, respondent No. 1 has been granted the benefit of disability pension.

5. A bare perusal of the order passed by the Tribunal which states that even the Medical Board has assessed disability of “Obesity and Mild Essential Hypertension” @ 30% which was held to be attributable to the military service. Keeping in view this fact also, when even the Medical Board has conceded that the disease ‘Mild Essential Hypertension’ which led to the discharge of the officer concerned was attributable to the military service, filing of the petition by the Union of India is contrary to the recommendations of the Medical Board itself. Once the disability assessed by the Medical Board qua disease ‘Mild Essential Hypertension’ was assessed @ 30% for two years, same entitles the disability pension to the respondent No.1. It is also conceded fact that thereafter nothing has come on record that respondent No.1 does not suffer from said disease.

6. Further, as per the settled principle of law settled by Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Union of India and others vs. Ram Avtar , 2014 SCC Online SC 1761, any officer serving in the Armed Forces, who had undergone the medical examination at the time of his/her selection and was found fit, subsequently upon suffering a disability, is entitled to the benefit of disability pension by rounding off the same as the presumption would be that the disability suffered is attributable to the Military service. Relevant paras of the judgment in Ram Avtar’s case (supra) are as under:-

“4. By the present set of appeals the appellant(s) raise the question, whether or not, an individual, who has retired on attaining the age of superannuation or on completion of his tenure of engagement, if found to be suffering from some disability which is attributable to or aggravated by the military service, is entitled to be granted the benefit of rounding-off of disability pension. The appellant(s) herein would conte