Why This Armed Force Personnel Was Denied Disability Pension: Know India's New Disability Pension Rules
Clarifying the provision of disability pension in military services, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in India has ruled that a soldier with obesity-caused diabetes and hypertension is not eligible for disability pension.?
The Tribunal passed this order over a soldier asking for disability pension, since there is no connection between such health problems and military service.?
Why was the IAF soldier's disability pension request denied??
Sergeant Saji Kumar Damodaran, an Indian Air Force (IAF) soldier had sought disability pension for his hypertension and diabetes, claiming that he had no such diseases when he joined the IAF in 1995 but was afflicted later because of "service conditions" and, hence, these should be treated as "attributable to, or aggravated by, military service".?
The Armed Forced tribunal examined the Body Mass Index (BMI) of the soldier when he was released (discharged) in 2018 on medical grounds after 23 years of service and correlated it with the BMI parameters of the World Health Organisation (WHO).?
It was found that Damodaran was 47.61% overweight at the time of discharge and the tribunal deduced that his hypertension and diabetes were primarily due to obesity.?
What is disability pension??
Disability pension refers to when a soldier is entiled to better retirement benefits on account of a medical downgrade following a disability.?
For the same rank, a disability pension can be 20 to 50% more than a normal pension and comes with tax exemption.?
How the disability pension was plagued with issues?
Earlier this year, a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report had found out that almost 40% of officers, and 18% of personnel below officer rank (PBOR) who retire every year are drawing disability pensions.?
The CAG had brought up the issue of disability pensions being awarded on account of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.?
Various armed forces officials said the claims for disability pensions shot up following the implementation of the sixth pay commission report in 2006 that enhanced benefits.?
"A detailed scrutiny of records showed that before 2006, hardly any top officers claimed disability pensions. But by 2015, about 21% of them were claiming it. If someone has a disability, they should declare it earlier in service and not a few months before retirement," Lieutenant General BK Chopra, then director general of Armed Forces Medical Services, said in a letter to the defence secretary.?
What are the new rules on disability pension for military personnel??
In September, new rules governing disability pension for military personnel were announced.?
The new rules titled ¡®Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pension and Disability Compensation Awards to Armed Forces Personnel, 2023¡¯ redefine pension and eligibility criteria for disability pension.?
A new concept of "impairment relief" was introduced in the new rule replacing the previous "disability element".?
The new rules for the first time incorporate lifestyle diseases like hypertension and Type-2 diabetes but the impairment relief will only apply to those who have acquired disabilities while on active duty in high altitude areas or due to excessive physical exertion during the period of military service.? ? ?
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