There was some action in the Hon’ble Supreme Court on the disability pension front in the last few weeks. This deals with disabled in the armed forces.This shows the insensitivity of the board in Army which goes to supremecourt on minor matters.The details :
Union of India Vs Mukhtiar Singh : The Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court had allowed disability pension to a soldier released in 1979 whose disability ‘Psychosis’ had been assessed as ‘neither attributable to, nor aggravated by service’ by the Release Medical Board. The Union of India had challenged the judgement before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition on 27-08-2010 on merits. Incidentally, ‘psychosis’ finds a mention in the Entitlement Rules as a disease which is affected by stress and strain of service but still it is time and again being labelled as ‘unrelated with service’ by our medical boards. Union of India Vs Ved Prakash : The soldier was invalided out with 7 years of service on account of ‘explosive personality disorder’ and his disability was declared ‘neither attributable to, nor aggravated by service’ and ‘constitutional’ in nature. The Hon’ble Delhi High Court allowed the petition filed by Ved Prakash and directed the release of disability pension. The order of the High Court was challenged by the Union of India before the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the said SLP stands dismissed on merits by the SC on 10-09-2010. Incidentally, when a pin-pointed cause of a disability is not recognised, many-a-times our medical boards label such disabilities as ‘constitutional’. If we go by the rule book however, the Entitlement Rules clearly provide that ‘constitutional disposition’ itself is not a disease and that if no root cause of a disease is identifiable, then the benefit has to go to the soldier. But all I can say is ‘Rules propose, Our Boards dispose’. Union of India Vs Raj Kumar Dhingra : The retired JCO was discharged on compassionate grounds after duly completing his terms of engagement with hypertension declared as ‘aggravated by service’. When the documents were sent for grant of disability pension, the PCDA(P) overruled the decision of the medical board and declared his disability ‘neither attributable to, nor aggravated by service’. When the JCO filed a writ petition in the Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court, the Union of India changed its stance and stated that his disability pension had been rejected since he was discharged at his own request. During the pendency of the writ petition, the office of DGAMS also called him for another medical board which now again declared his disability as ‘neither attributable to, nor aggravated by service’ thus electing to parrot the line of the PCDA(P) rather than the Release Medical Board. The Hon’ble High Court struck down both reasons of rejection and ordered the grant of disability pension to the JCO with a detailed order discussing all relevant rules. The Union of India strangely challenged the well reasoned judgement in the Supreme Court, perhaps the amount of disability element of pension awarded by the High Court, that is, Rs 570/- per month, was too high for the Union to digest. The SLP stands dismissed on merits on 01-10-2010. "Greatness lies not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall"Captain Johann samuhanand, BANGALORE INDIA91 80 42023252 www.captainjohann.blogspot.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
