Give all benefits to ex-short service commission officers

Give all benefits to ex-short service commission officers: Court
Pritam Pal Singh , Sep 05, 2011, 20:03 pm IST
Give all benefits to ex-short service commission officers: Court
New Delhi, In a ruling that will benefit Short Service Commission (SSC) officers in the armed forces, the Delhi High Court has said that those officers who are forced to leave before completing their tenure due to disability and poor health are eligible for all medical and insurance benefits.

The court was hearing the petition of Sagrika Singh, who joined as SSC officer in the Indian Army Feb 2, 1999, and was attached with the Army Medical Corps but was denied medical and insurance benefits on the ground that she had not completed her tenure. Her SSC stint was cut short by kidney failure.

Directing the ministry to provide all benefits to the petitioner, the court, in its 23-page order, said: “Mandamus is issued to the defence ministry to pay the sum assured to the petitioner…and needless to state the petitioner would be entitled to simple interest on the said sum (Rs.10 lakh) at the rate of eight percent per annum reckoned from a date three months after the petitioner raised a demand.”

The division bench consisting of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Rajiv Shakdher said: “The Army Group Insurance Fund (AGIF) was established with the approval of the government. The main object of the fund is to cater to the socio-economic needs of the army personnel and their families by providing insurance cover.”

The court pointed out that the objective of the AGIF disability scheme was to provide financial benefits to individuals whose service was cut short due to invalidation or release on medical grounds before completion of the terms of engagement or service applicable to that rank.

“The terms of engagement of the petitioner required the petitioner to serve for 14 years subject to fulfilment of the prescribed eligibility conditions. The only reason which resulted in the tenure of engagement being cut short was petitioner’s failure” to be in the required medical condition, said the court in its judgment Aug 29, made available to IANS Sep 3.

The petitioner said that after she joined the service she was granted extension by another five years. She became eligible to be considered for further extension in service by another four years, but prior to expiry of the period of five years, it was detected that one kidney of the petitioner was malfunctioning.

In the year 2009 upon examination by a medical board it was opined that the petitioner had a malfunctioning kidney and thus she was placed in permanent low medical category with disability assessed at 100 percent.

Since one condition of grant of extension in service was that the person ought not to be in low medical category, the petitioner was denied extension and released from service.

The bench observed: “Enrolled in the Indian Army as a SSC officer, the initial term of her engagement was of five years and the petitioner had a right to be considered for extension in service, firstly for a term of five years and thereafter for another term of four years. Petitioner’s right was to be considered for extension in service. The army authorities were thus under an obligation to consider the said right of the petitioner.”
Give all benefits to ex-short service commission officers
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Is PAN necessary for senior citizens without taxable income?

Tax Forum: Questions & Answers
PAN: ordeal for taxpayers
QUESTION: I am writing this provoked by your answer titled “Is PAN necessary for senior citizens without taxable income?” in The Hindu, Kochi Edition dated September 27, 2010.

I shall elaborate with a live example. My mother, a widow, aged 82, is drawing a family pension averaging Rs.85,000 annually. Recently, due to pay revision based on one-rank-one-pension as per the rules of the Kerala State, she received arrears of pension in one lump sum in March 2010 covering past four years.

On availing benefit of spreadover under Sec. 89, her total income for the years did not exceed the income tax exemption limit. Since she did not have a PAN (Permanent Account Number) number, State Bank of India, through which her pension is being disbursed, promptly deducted income tax during the last week of March 2010. She had no time either for applying for PAN nor did she have any intimation to the effect that TDS was being deducted. By the time she obtained her PAN number, deduction was already made and the TAN return was submitted by the bank without inserting PAN. When she went to submit her income tax return before July 31, the income tax authorities declined to accept the return for want of PAN. Now after obtaining PAN, the return has been accepted. Since the bank had already furnished its return without the PAN number, in all probability, the refund claim will not get any matching entry with the income tax authorities. What will be the plight of these elderly citizens, who for no fault of theirs, are penalised due purely to the proverbial red tapism and ways of bureaucracy. There will be scores of such people whose little income like interest on deposits and their hard earned pension, have been subjected to such TDS without giving them sufficient time to get PAN number, which is practically of no utility for them other than avoiding TDS.

ANSWER: The ordeal of taxpayers relating to the requirement of PAN in the above letter is aired by the reader, Gerard K. John, retired Assistant General Manager of State Bank of India, Kochi, in respect of his mother's case.

The difficulties as stated above cannot possibly be avoided for one reason or the other, but the situation can be remedied by expediting refund by setting right AS 22 at the earliest opportunity on the basis of PAN details subsequently received.
S. RAJARATNAM
PAN: ordeal for taxpayers