Disability benefits for pre-2006 pensioners-Vijay Mohan Tribune News Service : Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Disability benefits for pre-1996 pensioners.

Vijay Mohan:Tribune News Service.

Chandigarh, January 31.Following the recommendations of

the Committee of Secretaries, the government has partially

modified regulations for disability pension and extended

benefit of broad-banding of disability percentage to those

invalided out of serviceprior to January 1996.The cap on

war injury pension, restricting the same to themaximum

of last drawn emoluments for personnel invalided out in

Category ‘E’, also stands removed. The orders to this effect

were issued by the Ministry of Defence on January 19 after

financial sanction for the same was accorded earlier this

month.The benefits of broad-banding of disability

percentage and removing the cap on war injury pension

were recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission. These

were, however, extended only to those invalided out of

service in1996 or after, thereby putting similarly placed

persons left service earlier at a disadvantage.While the

partial modification has been welcomed by veterans as

a positive development,some officers and legal experts

point out that the benefits have been extended only to

those individuals, who were invalided out of service and

not to those who retired on completion of their terms of

engagement.

In the case, Paramjit Singh Vs Union of India, the Punjab

and Haryana High Court, has alreadyheld this disparity

to be arbitrary.

Regulations now themselves provide that for the purposes

of disability pension, persons placed in low medical

category at the time of retirement are deemed to be invalided

out of service.The different treatment between invalided and

superannuating personnel, according to lawyers dealing in

the pensionary matters, seems strangein view of the fact that

broad-banding or rounding-off disability percentage was

introduced to curb medical subjectivity because it was felt

that different medical boards were providing different

percentages of disability for similar ailments.

Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Mob.098554-09128,Tele-fax 0175-5000896.

The govt.sleeps while the sadists take the system for a ride -Navdeep :Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Dear Veterans,
Regards.Maj.Navdeep has posted the following onhis
blog.Our organisation fully endosres his views and I
request all otherwelfare organisations of veterans to
take same stand. The legal pundits are bent upon
crushing the pensioners, particulary, the veterans
and their dependents. We will have to take a boldstand
against this injustice being done to us all. We should
stand united and pay heed to the clarion call given by
Maj. Navdeep.Sunday, January 31, 2010
The gameplan of legal pundits :
The govt sleeps while sadists take the system for
a ride
You may have read this on the blog before.
All is fair in love and war they say, and the same seems
to be the battle-cry of the Central Government against
its retired employees.So what is it that the people in
officialdom have against disabled veterans and
pensioners ?The last months have seen the Union of
India filing appeals and SLPs in almostevery decision
of the Hon’ble Courts allowing disability pension to
disabled veterans. The same is the story with other
pensionary matters. I feel ashamed in saying this but
while the lawyers make hay, former soldiers and their
families suffer in silence.It is turning out to be sickening
now. And this is to say the least.Law has now been
well settled by the Courts includingthe Hon’ble
Supreme Court on certain issues, but the legal advisors
of the government are in no mood to relent. Even when
High Courts (and now benches of the AFT) are deciding
matters with well-rounded decisions based on settled
law and principlesof equity, the central govt continues
to mindlessly file appeals before the Supreme Court.
The govt also continues to refuse benefits to veterans
in settled issues till the time individual casesare filed
separately by pensioners. One such glaring example
discussed before is disability pension to voluntary
retirees. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court has
upheld the right ofvoluntary retirees to receive
disability pension, the Union of India continues to
fileappeals against decisions of High Courts granting
such benefits to affected disabled personnel. Another
very recent and shocking example is SLP No 688 of
2010 filed by the Central Govt before the Supreme
Court which was listed for hearing on 25th of January,
2010. The case involved the improvedpensionary
benefits granted to PBOR wef 10-10-1997 after
removing the anomalies of the 5th CPC. The Hon’ble
Punjab & Haryana High Court had earlier in the year
2008 held that such benefits had to be granted to
affected personnel with effect from01-01-1996 (and not
10-10-1997) since the anomaly had to be rectified
from the date of its inception and not from some other
prospective artificial date. The High Court had hence
held personnel who retired between 01-01-1996 to
10-10-1997 also entitled to the enhanced benefits. The
Union of India, as expected, challenged the verdict
before the Hon’ble Supreme Court through an SLP but
the same was dismissed on merits on 21-11-2008.
So far, so good, but what is shameful is that fully
knowing that the law was now settled by the Apex
Court and that the Central Govt.had itself rectified
this anomaly through the anomalies committee,
another SLP (the above mentioned 688 of 2010)
was filed by them this new year against another such
decision by the same High Court and the same has
again been dismissed by the Apex Court on
25-01-2010. I bet the Hon’ble Supreme Court would
not have been informed in the fresh SLP of the
earlier dismissal of an exactly similar case in the
year 2008.It is high time that the Defence Minister,
the military top brass and the Defence Secretary take
a call on this mindless one sided ego basedlitigation
which, besides leading to burdening judicial fora,is
also leading to burden on the State and demoralisation
of rank and file. Nobody stands to gain except probably
the battery of lawyers appearing for the Union of India.
It also seems that power has been concentrated in the
hands of a few officers dealing with pensionary and
legal matters who have spent quite a few years in the
corridors of the Services Headquarters & the Ministry
and decisions of filing appeals are thrust upon the top
brass without due judiciousness or sensitivity
concerning the issues at hand. This must change. A
letter recently marked to the Defence Minster by a an
ex-services welfare organisation aptly describes the rot:
“Lower staff at the Pension wing of the Defence Ministry
is also known to prepare misleading and deceptive
noting sheetswhich are put up to senior officers and
even the Raksha Mantri, who in good faith affix their
initials leaving the gallery open to such officers who
then flaunt the said approvals by stating that the same
have the sanction of the Defence Minister. It is also
learnt that the officers in the Defence Ministry have
asked Govt.lawyers in writing to change their legal
opinion when such lawyers had advised against filing
of appeals.”What is the game behind this, one may ask.
Well, the govt is well aware that disabled veterans and
poor pensioners do not have adequate financial
back-up to defend their cases in the Supreme Court,so
for the govt it is well worth taking a chance. I can only
say that in the interest of equity and fair-play, we all
must wakeup before some officers take the entire
defence services and the legal system for a royal ride.
It is also time for senior staff of theMinistry and our
uniformed officers to apply proper mindbefore they
permit their subordinates to resort to unethical
litigation against poor people who have served the
nation to the best of their abilities. The hint of my
call is particularlydirected towards the upper
echelons of Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare in
the MoD and the Personnel ServicesDirectorate in the
Army Headquarters. The tendency to view poor
litigants as ‘Enemies of the State’ must also change.