The Delhi High Court on September 26, 2025 allowed a writ petiton seeking to quash an order by the AFT( Armed Forces Tribunal) which rejected the petiitoner’s claim for disability pension. Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla held that the Tribunal’s order was ex facie as it wrongly concluded a causal link between the petitioner’s hypertension and obesity.
The petitioner, a Regular Nursing Officer, retired on July 31, 2006 after serving for 36 years in a low medical category. Around the time of her release, the RMB (Release Medical Board) assessed her with a 1–5% disability for obesity and 30% for hypertension. She subsequently applied for disability pension, but her claim was rejected. Challenging this decision, the petitoner filed an Original Application (OA) before the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT). The Tribunal, however, dismissed her plea, holding that her hypertension was attributable to obesity and noting that she had not followed medical advice to reduce her weight, and therefore was not entitled to disability pension. The petitioner still aggrieved, moved the Delhi High Court.
The Court observed that neither the RMB nor the specialist had linked the petitioner’s hypertension to obesity, yet the Tribunal had wrongly drawn such an conclusion. It noted that obesity and hypertension do not always overlap and, relying on Supreme Court rulings like Dharamvir Singh, Bijender Singh v. Union of India 2025 SCC OnLine SC 895 , and UOI v. Balbir Singh WP C 140/2024,which held that in the absence of medical evidence pointing to a non-service cause, the presumption is that the disability arose from military service. The Court also citedUOI v. Gawa Anil Madso W.P.(C) 3545/2025 and UOI v. Ram Avtar 2014 SCC OnLine SC 1761, and stated that to the burden of proving a causal connection between the disability and military service is not on the candidate but on the administration and that disability pension must be rounded off to 50%. Accordingly, AFT’s order of April 13, 2023 was quashed and the Court entitled the petitioner to disability pension for hypertension, and directed release of pension with arrears limited to three years prior to the OA, to be paid within twelve weeks, failing which interest at 9% p.a. would apply. Subsquently, the writ petition was allowed with no order as to costs.
Appearances:
For the Petitioner : Mr. A.K Trivedi and Mr. Dhruv Kothari, Advs.
For the Respondents : Mr. Satya Ranjan Swain, SPC Major Anish Muralidhar (Army)
