A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur, recently dismissed an appeal filed by a Navy officer who sought a disability pension on the grounds that his medical condition, epilepsy, was attributable to his service in the Indian Navy. The officer had been invalidated from service following the diagnosis of his condition, which was acknowledged but not deemed a result of his military engagement. The Court noted that epilepsy is a condition that can be dormant and appears intermittently, and emphasized that there was no evidence presented to indicate that the officer’s service aggravated his medical condition.
The case dates back to January 1, 1977, when the petitioner enlisted in the Indian Navy. He served for nearly six years before being discharged on December 20, 1982, after a Medical Board deemed him unfit for service due to his epilepsy, diagnosed in 1981. The officer contested the severity of his condition and asserted that he was unjustly invalidated from service within a relatively short time frame. He argued that essential medical documentation regarding his condition was never provided, receiving only a certificate that classified him as medically unfit.
Subsequently, the officer approached the Armed Forces Tribunal seeking a disability pension calculated at 50% for life, starting from his invalidation date. However, the Tribunal decided only to grant him an invalid pension. Displeased with this verdict, the officer escalated the matter to the High Court.
In his appeal, the officer’s counsel contended that critical medical documents were missing, and a certificate dated October 14, 2019, only confirmed the destruction of these records. The counsel maintained that the documentation available indicated that the petitioner should not have been classified as invalidated given his initial medical classification. Citing numerous Supreme Court judgments, the defense argued that service members entering the military in good health who subsequently are discharged with disabilities should be entitled to consideration for disability pensions unless specific exceptions applied.
On the other hand, the respondents, representing the government, countered the appeal by arguing that the petitioner’s medical classification was appropriate, asserting that he fell under a Low Medical Category (S5A5). They explained the absence of other medical documents due to the historical policy regarding the destruction of records from 1994 and maintained that the petitioner’s disability had been assessed as neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service. The respondents pointed out that since the assessed disability percentage was below 20%, it was not eligible for the rounding-off benefit to 50%.
The Court examined the Tribunal’s ruling and the medical documentation related to the case thoroughly. It reviewed the assessment by Lieutenant Colonel A.S. Narayanan Swamy, a neurology specialist, who concluded that the petitioner suffered from generalized epilepsy without any secondary causes linked to military service. The Medical Board had confirmed that the petitioner was medically fit for certain civil duties, with exceptions regarding specific activities that could trigger his condition.
Additionally, the Court considered statements from the petitioner’s Commanding Officer, which indicated that he was not assigned duties requiring submarine operations or sailing, further supporting the view that his medical condition could not be attributed to his service in the Navy.
Ultimately, the Court ruled that the officer’s epilepsy likely existed in a dormant state at the time of his commissioning and could not be connected to his period of service, leading to the dismissal of the appeal.
