Veterans’ pension benefits apply from discharge date, not court order: HC

Chandigarh: In an order having wide ramifications for pension cases of military veterans, the Punjab and Haryana high court made it clear that pensioners would be entitled to benefits from the date of discharge, not from the date of court order that held the military veteran was entitled to such benefits.“Upon the verdict of dismissal from service being converted into a verdict of discharge from service, the said substitution is also to be readable from the date of the passing of the order of dismissal/discharge. In sequel, the said date becomes the relevant date for the consequent benefits of pension becoming accorded to him,” a division bench, comprising Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma, said.

The bench issued the order as it allowed a plea filed by Jaspal Singh, who had sought directions to set aside an order dated April 5, 2019, passed by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), Chandigarh, whereby the benefit of service pension was started from the date of passing of the impugned order by the tribunal.The petitioner had joined the Indian Army’s Corps of Signals on November 4, 1986. In April 2003, he overstayed his casual leave and was declared a deserter from April 11, 2003. He was dismissed from the Army under the Army Act. He approached the AFT in 2013 seeking directions to grant him service pension as he had completed the number of years of service required for pension.On April 5, 2019, the AFT Chandigarh converted his dismissal from service to discharge from service with pension but found that he was entitled to service pension from the date of its order because he had approached the tribunal after around seven years from the date of his dismissal.Aggrieved from the AFT order, he approached the HC. The counsel for the petitioner, advocate Rajesh Sehgal, argued that once the tribunal had held that the petitioner was entitled to pension, the same should be given to him from the date of discharge and not from the date of passing of the order by AFT.After hearing all the parties, the HC division bench ordered the tribunal order restricting the benefit of service pension to the petitioner from the date of passing of the impugned order to be quashed. “The petitioner is declared to become entitled to service pension from the date whereon the same accrued to him, along with 7% interest per annum,” the division bench held.
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