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Chandigarh Punjab and Haryana HC issues notice on PIL challenging mass litigation by MoD against disabled soldiers

Punjab and Haryana HC issues notice on PIL challenging mass litigation by MoD against disabled soldiers

The PIL has said the defence ministry is ‘flooding courts’ with ‘unethical, damaging and unnecessary litigation against disabled soldiers and old pensioners’.

Written by Man Aman Singh Chhina
Updated: February 28, 2024 08:14 IST

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Filed in January, the PIL states that pursuant to the PM’s intervention, the MoD had withdrawn appeals from the Supreme Court in 2019 but is now flooding the courts again with similar cases. (Express File Photo by Jasbir Malhi)

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday issued notice of motion to the Union Government on the latest policy of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) wherein it has started challenging almost all verdicts passed by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) granting disability benefits to disabled personnel in the Supreme Court and the high courts.

Many military veterans and organisations had expressed surprise and anguish over the policy which is based on the advice of the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) branch.

The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Colonel (retd) Sadhu Singh Sohi, president of Ex-Services Grievances Cell, Mohali, has averred that the new policy of the MoD and JAG to “flood the Courts with en masse, unethical, damaging and unnecessary litigation against disabled soldiers and old pensioners” is in total contravention of the directions of the Prime Minister and of high-level committees of the law and defence ministries to end such litigation and will burden the exchequer and disabled soldiers.

Filed in January, the PIL states that pursuant to the PM’s intervention, the MoD had withdrawn appeals from the Supreme Court in 2019 but is now flooding the courts again with similar cases.

The PIL points out that it had been decided by the government that only those verdicts would be challenged which involve disabilities due to negligence, intoxication or substance abuse and that stress and strain of military service affects the health and longevity of soldiers. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the benefit of the doubt is to be given to soldiers’ disabilities irrespective of the manner of exit from service or whether the disabilities have occurred in peace or field areas.

Close to 1,000 appeals filed by the MoD against disabled soldiers were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2014, which led to the PM directing the defence minister to constitute a high-level committee of experts, which came down heavily on the Army and MoD for indulging in “ego-fuelled” litigation.

This was followed by a communication by the then attorney general Mukul Rohtagi asking the MoD not to “cause loss to the State and embarrassment to the government”. The Supreme Court had thereafter passed strictures against MoD for challenging settled pension matters.

In 2023, a series of coercive orders were passed by AFT against MoD officials for not complying with judgments for years together which led to the issuance of the policy for challenging all orders passed in favour of disabled veterans.

It has been stated in the PIL that JAG officials have taken the opinion of senior law officers to initiate such litigation without informing them of the correct legal position and practical realities of the tough conditions of service of soldiers and by hiding past government decisions taken to withdraw such litigation.

The petition states that ministries such as the Ministry of Finance have taken appreciable steps to curtail litigation but the MoD remains unaffected and is “bent upon washing-out the stellar efforts of the PMO and the government as a whole by clogging the justice delivery system with unethical litigation”.

© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 27-02-2024 at 12:41 IST
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Punjab And Haryana HC
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