Vijay Mohan
Chandigarh, 16 December
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has said in an important decision that if an army jawan sustains an injury even after the time of his duty at an army station, he is still entitled to disability benefits. The High Court has upheld the earlier ruling of the Armed Forces Tribunal in this regard and has said that the army cannot refuse to grant disability benefits on the pretext that his injury occurred after ‘duty time’.
The High Court was hearing a writ petition filed by the Ministry of Defense and the Army challenging the tribunal’s decision. In its verdict, the tribunal ordered disability pension to a member of the Defense Security Corps, who was hit by an unidentified vehicle near the gate of his unit in September 2015, with 30 percent disability for life. had to face The accident happened when he was returning to his unit after duty.
The government had challenged the tribunal’s AFT decision on the grounds that the disability was declared to be ‘neither caused by nor aggravated by military service’ and the accident occurred after ‘duty’ hours, although the soldier was was not convicted of
A division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma, in its judgment, said that a person cannot be denied disability pension for an injury sustained during ‘rest hours’. as he remains on active service and is not on leave during such period.