Disability Pension Appeals Dismissed; Medical Board Scrutiny Clarified by SC

Union of India & Ors. Vs Col. NC Isaac (Retd.) (Supreme Court of India)

Disabled Soldiers Cannot Be Dragged Through Endless Litigation: SC Upholds Beneficial Disability-Pension Rules & Dismisses Union’s Appeals

Summary: The Supreme Court dealt with a large batch of appeals filed by the Union of India against retired Armed Forces personnel who had been granted the disability element of pension by the Armed Forces Tribunal (“AFT”) or the High Courts. In every case, the Release Medical Board (“RMB”) had initially classified the disability as neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service (“NANA”). The departmental appeals of the ex-servicemen were also rejected, but the AFT or the concerned High Court interfered and granted disability pension by treating the disability as attributable to or aggravated by military service.

The Supreme Court noted at the outset that these appeals represented only a small fraction of similar cases repeatedly brought before it. Several earlier appeals had already been dismissed either on account of enormous delay or on merits. The Court expressed concern that litigation continued despite settled legal principles and notwithstanding the Ministry of Defence’s own acceptance of the recommendation that appeals against disabled soldiers should ordinarily be withdrawn.

The principal controversy concerned the relationship between the Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards, 1982 and the corresponding Entitlement Rules, 2008, which were issued in 2010 and made applicable to personnel becoming non-effective on or after 1 January 2008.