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Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 18
In what may remove a major irritant, the Ministry of Defence is working on a solution to withdraw cases filed in courts against disabled soldiers. There are some 50-odd pending cases of soldiers whose disability pensions have been challenged by the MoD in courts.
In some cases, appeals have been filed by the government despite lowers courts or Armed Force Tribunals (AFTs) having ruled in favour of the soldiers. Sources said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked officials to work out a solution so soldiers facing such cases do not have to face any more legal costs or delays.
In June 2017, the MoD had decided against filing fresh appeals against disability pensions and benefits. However, there was no decision on withdrawing the appeals pending in the apex court.
The settled legal position and directions from the Supreme Court, high courts and AFTs is that such appeals are frivolous and force soldiers to endure expensive and long legal battles due to appeals.
Disability benefits are separate from routine pensions and are accorded as per grade of injury to the soldier. It is further defined in monetary terms. For example, some injuries entail 100 per cent disability pension, which in monetary terms means literally getting double the routine pension.
Year 2018 was observed as the ‘Year of Disabled Soldiers in Line of Duty’.
Women to be recruited in military police: Nirmala
New Delhi: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government has taken a “historic” decision to induct women in the military police. They will be inducted in a graded manner to eventually comprise 20 per cent of total Corps of Military Police, the official handle of the Defence Minister tweeted. Their role would range from probing rape and molestation cases to assisting the Army wherever required. Currently, women are allowed in areas such as medical, legal, educational, signals and engineering wings of the Army. PTI
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