📍नई दिल्ली | 2 months ago
Punjab-Haryana High Court Rules: In a huge relief to armed forces personnels who have suffered disability during their service, Punjab and Haryana High court made it clear that qualifying period is not mandatory for claiming full pension benefits.
A division bench of Justices Sureshwar Thakur and Sudeepti Sharma upheld an Armed Forces Tribunal’s decision regarding the disability pension for an ex-serviceman and ruled that disabilities attributable to or aggravated by service entitles a serviceman to both the disability and service elements of the pension.
The bench noted that this applies even if the serviceman has not completed the minimum qualifying service period.
The court was hearing the plea by Sukhdev Singh who had joined the Indian Army’s Sikh Regiment in 1972 and served for 24 years before retiring in 1996 with a service pension.
In 1999, he was re-enrolled as a Sepoy in the Defence Security Corps for an initial term of 10 years. During this second tenure, he developed disabilities including primary hypertension, obesity, and osteoarthritis, due to which he couldn’t complete the service.
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Though singh started receiving the disability element of his pension but for his service with defence security corps was denied on the ground that he hasn’t complete his tenure.
Singh then approached the Armed Forces Tribunal, which allowed his claim for the service element. However, Centre filed an an appeal against this decision in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and argued that the Pension Regulations for the Army, 1961 and 2008, clearly stipulate that the service element is contingent upon completing 15 years of qualifying service and Sukhdev Singh had served only 9 years and 294 days in the DSC.
However the bench disagree with Centres contention and said, “Singh’s disability of 50%, arose during his DSC tenure and since his inability to complete 15 years was attributable to the disability itself.”
The court ruled that he was eligible for the service element under Regulation 179 and held that he cannot be denied his second pension for his DSC service only because he continued to receive pension for his first service in the Army.