New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has decided to contest hundreds of cases of disability pension awarded to retired officers and jawans in court nearly a month after it tightened rules for its eligibility.
The Adjutant General’s branch in a letter to legal cells of all Army commands has said “as directed by the competent authority at MoD, writ petitions be filed in the jurisdictional high court”. These petitions will be filed against various Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) judgements, the Tribune reported.
In September, the defence ministry had rolled out ‘Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards to the Armed Forces Personnel-2023′, changing how disability pension is calculated for veterans.
This was done after an internal assessment done by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that 40% of the officers were claiming disabilities to get higher pensionary benefits. Those deemed eligible for disability benefits get 20-50% higher pension and income tax exemptions. As per the assessment, the annual pension outflow is around Rs 10,000 crore and the tightening of rules is likely to save Rs 4,000 crore.
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Now the defence ministry has prepared a list of officers and jawans, who have been awarded some sort of disability pension, which was appended to the AG’s letter. The list comprises beneficiaries divided under 10 categories and has been drawn up on the basis of which the soldiers were granted disability pension, the Tribune report said.
“The cases have been listed after careful sifting of a huge volume of files,” said the AG’s letter sent out last month. According to the report, the defence ministry has been at the receiving end of adverse judicial strictures passed by courts, citing “delay” in processing cases after the pronouncement of AFT judgments. The Army is seeking a stay on the various judgments and wants similar petitions to be clubbed.
The AG branch has asked the legal cells of the commands to monitor the cases in the respective high courts. While legal cells will be vetting each case at the local level, any ambiguity will be decided by the AG office, the report said.