Last Updated on June 15, 2024 by Satish Mishra
Disability pension is granted to the employees who are invalidated or terminated from his or her service due to any disability that has arisen in the course of service and due to service . In the Indian Armed forces, disability pension is granted to employees who suffer atleast 20% disability arising out of the military service.
The Armed Forces Tribunal act, 2007 established the Armed Forces Tribunals’ Principal Bench in Delhi and Regional Benches in various Districts in order to deal with the representations by the servants of military with their grievances related to their service. Thus, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) is authorised to deal with the matters relating to pension of the servants of military.
Also Read- AFT TRIBUNAL ADVOCATES AND LAWYERS IN CHANDIGARH PANCHKULA AND MOHALI
ESSENTIALS TO GET DISABILITY PENSION:
The main requirements in order to get the disability pension are as follows:
a) The disability should have arisen in the course of military service,
b) There should not be any disease detected at the time of joining of military service,
c) The disability must be 20% or above and
d) The disability should be the reason for the termination of the employee from service.
In Dharamvir Singh V. UOI & Ors., it was held that the mere reason that the Medical Board could not find the ground of occurrence of the disease that was not existing at the time of joining the service of military and the report of the board saying that the disease was neither attributable nor aggregated to the service of military do not amount to rejection of application for grant of Disability Pension. The above mentioned case is considered as the precedent in most of the Disability Pension cases.
Also Read- ARMED FORCES TRIBUNAL ACT, 2007
JURISDICTION TO APPLY FOR DISABILITY PENSION:
In general, the AFT has jurisdiction to deal with the disability pension since it falls under the category of SERVICE MATTERS. In Lt. Col. Alok Koushik V. UOI & Ors, the concept of territorial jurisdiction of AFT was well explained while dealing with service matters. The facts of the case are that an application for Disability Pension by the petitioner had been transferred by the AFT Principal Bench to the Division Bench of Lucknow on the ground of want of jurisdiction. The petitioner filed a WP claiming to transfer back the application to the AFT Principal Bench at Delhi. The HC held that the AFT Principal Bench at Delhi has jurisdiction since all the related offices are at Delhi.
As per the existing law, the applicant shall apply to the AFT tribunal
a) Which falls within the jurisdiction of the last place of work of the applicant or
b) Which falls within the jurisdiction of the place of residence of the applicant or
c) Which falls within the jurisdiction of the place of cause of action.
Also Read- PUNISHMENT OF REPRIMAND BY AFT TRIBUNAL
BAR ON LIMITATION IN APPLICATON FOR DISABILITY PENSION:
In Ex. Sep. Trilochan V UOI & Ors., the facts of the case are that AFT has rejected the applicaton of plaintiff claiming that it has been filed after 30 years of retirement of the plaintiff. WP was filed by him in order to quash the dismissal by AFT. The HC observed that the plaintiff had approached the PCDA immediately after his retirement from service, but the PCDA had denied Disability Pension. He had subsequently approached other related forums for justice but was in vain. Atlast he had approached the AFT that took over 30 years on dealing with other related forums. Hence it was held that bar of limitation does not apply if the plaintiff has undergone a continuous injury due to a continuous wrong by the adjudicating authorities.
Also Read- DISABILITY PENSION ALLOWED BY AFT CHANDIMANDIR
DISABILITY OCCURED ON VACATION:
In Surendra Bahadhur Singh V. AFT & Ors., a different view was laid down by the court. The facts of the case are that a servant of military had undergone severe burn injuries while burning crackers during Diwali holidays at his home. His right hand was amputated that resulted in the invalidation of the petitioner from service. The AFT allowed the grant of Disability Pension on the ground that burning crackers is not inconsistent to the service of military. So, the accident is considered to be occurred in the course of service and hence Disability Pension is granted.
Also Read- DECIDING MAINTENANCE OF SPOUSE OF ARMY
CONCLUSION:
Disability Pension is like the compensation given by the Government to its employees for the loss happened to them while working for the Government. Though this is a welcome policy, getting Disability Pension is not an easy task. It requires lots of litigation and patience in the part of the claimer. It is a sad truth that 90% of the litigation on getting the benefits of the government policies for government workers is claim for Disability Pension. Much speeder mechanism for granting the Disability Pension is the need of hour.
This post is written by Amritha Kannan of SASTRA , Thanjavur Chennai. For any subject specific advice, please dial 99888-17966.
