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Judgment
NAVIN CHAWLA, J. (ORAL)
This petition has been filed by the petitioner praying for a direction to the respondents to grant appointment to the petitioner with full seniority, promotion, and back wages or, in the alternative, grant ‘invalid pension’ to the petitioner.
It is the case of the petitioner that the petitioner was appointed as Constable (GD) with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on 20.09.2007. He was ‘invalidated and boarded out’ of service on medical grounds on 07.10.2017. The petitioner therefore, claimed reinstatement or, in the alternative, invalid pension.
This Court by its order dated 11.07.2023, directed the respondents to file on record the Medical Board proceedings to show if the petitioner has been boarded out for a disability which can be stated to be attributable to or aggravated by the service conditions. Thereafter, there was some dispute whether the petitioner appeared before the Medical Board or not and there were also delays in obtaining the report from the respondents.
Finally, this Court by its order dated 18.11.2024, directed the petitioner to be examined at the Army R&R Hospital, New Delhi.
Today, we have been handed over a report dated 09.12.2024 of the Medical Board, which opines as under:
“1.The board constituted as under as per the orders of Comdt, Army Hosp (R&R) as per directions of Hon’ble High Court, Delhi WP(C) No.853/2023 dated 18 Nov 2024 has perused his relevant records and Medical Manual, CRPF-1998 and the opinion of the Board is as per follows:
(a)Indl was boarded out with the diagnosis of Major Depression with Psychotic Features with 85% disability in Aug 2017.
(b)The disability may not be directly attributable to service conditions, however, it may be aggravated by stressful service environment.
2.It is also submitted that Guide to Medical Officers (GMO-2023) which the Armed Forces follows may not be entirely applicable to other uniformed services and Medical Manual, CRPF-1998 does not give adequate clarity on attributability/aggravation of such cases.”
The report is taken on record.
From the above report, it is clear that the Medical Board has opined that though the disability suffered by the petitioner may not be directly attributable to service conditions, however, it may be aggravated by a stressful service environment.
The learned counsel for the petitioner, placing reliance on the judgment in WP(C) No.718/2023 titled Umrao Rawat v. Union of India & Anr., NC:2023:DHC:4814:DB, has submitted that in similar circumstances, the Court extended the ratio of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Dharamvir Singh v. Union of India, (2013) 7 SCC 316 and held that the petitioner therein having been ‘boarded out’ on account of illness suffered during his service, which is found to be attributable to military service, would be entitled to invalid pension in terms of the Office Memorandum dated 10.02.2019. The Court observed as under:
“17.Even otherwise, the law with regard to grant of invalid pension has to be liberally construed as laid down by the Supreme Court and applying the same principle, we are of the view that petitioner has suffered an illness while in service and has been boarded out on account of the said illness which is attributable to military service and has been found unfit for military service, petitioner is entitled to invalid pension in accordance with the said OM.”
Keeping in view the above, we direct the respondents to release the ‘invalid pension’ to the petitioner commencing from a period of three years prior to the date of his filing the present petition along with interest @6% per annum.
The petition is disposed of in the above terms.