Disability Pension

Refusal to pay disability pension
In an order which would benefit a large number of armed forces personnel, the Supreme Court has ruled that disabled soldiers who opt pre-mature retirement at their own request are entitled to disability pension. Defence personnel with disabilities attributable to or aggravated by military service are eligible for disability pension. The government, however, had been refusing payment of disability pension to personnel who had left the forces voluntarily on compassionate grounds. The reason given for denial was that such personnel were technically not deemed to have been invalidated out of service.

Supreme Court Ruling

Comments
There is need for Armed Forces to have a more humane approach towards soldiers disabled or physically challenged while in service. Most of the rules are bureaucratic and applied to individual cases without any logic. The decision making process has whittled down to notings by babus and signed by the concerned Officer. Normally civil suits from Defence Personnel ideally should be zero. Recent emerging trends we have seen from the media is that, civil cases of Defence Personnel seeking judicial justice is ascending in geometric progression. This is adversely affecting the image of the Armed Forces in general. There is urgent need for in house examination and introspection to correct the adverse and declining public image of the Defence Forces, in spite, of the PRO doing a magnificent job of painting a positive picture.