Soldier discharged in 1989 finally gets disability pension

A MEDICAL BOARD CONCLUDED THAT SINGH'S CONDITION WAS 'NOT ATTRIBUTABLE TO MILITARY SERVICE'

- Ayesha Arvind

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has called for a "liberal interpretation" of disability pension rules for armed forces personnel and directed the union government to pay a former soldier of the Indian Army, "50% disability pension for life," effective from January 1, 1996, after he was invalided out of service 35 years ago.

While doing so, the court commented that the morale of the armed forces required "absolute and undiluted protection".

The appellant, Bijender Singh, who enrolled in the Indian Army in August 1985, was discharged from service from the Army Air Defence Regiment on medical grounds with effect from August, 1989. Singh's discharge followed the onset of generalised "tonic-clonic seizures," which he claimed began soon after his high-altitude posting at the Siachen Glacier between May and September 1988.