SC: More Compensation, Insurance Needed for Disabled Military Cadets

The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Centre to consider enhancing monetary compensation and insurance cover for cadets discharged from military training institutions due to disabilities suffered during training, and devise a scheme to resettle those who have recovered.

- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

This was recorded in an order issued by a bench headed by Justice B V Nagarathna, which took suo motu cognizance of reports in The Indian Express on August 11 about how these officer cadets have been battling severe disability with mounting medical bills and poor benefits.

This newspaper had reported that these cadets get an ex gratia payment of up to Rs 40,000 per month, depending on the extent of disability — an amount, they had said, fell far short of basic needs, with medical expenses alone costing, on an average, nearly Rs 50,000 per month or more.

It had also reported that around 500 officer cadets have been medically discharged from top institutes, such as National Defence Academy (NDA), since 1985, due to varying degrees of disability incurred during training. And that while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had okayed a proposal last year to increase the ex gratia awarded in such cases, the file was caught between the Defence and Finance ministries.