Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 1

While the Ministry of Defence (MoD) filed close to 800 appeals in the Supreme Court against disabled ex-servicemen in last three years, it managed to win only one case.Admitting this in Parliament this week, Minister of State for Defence Dr Subhash Bhamre said appeals against soldiers with disability accounted for a whooping 61.50% of all appeals filed by the government.Appeals are filed by the government in the SC against judgments of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) and the High Courts that have gone in favour of disabled ex-servicemen who had sought redressal of their grievances concerning pension and related benefits.The matter has been taken up repeatedly with the government by various ex-servicemen’s association as well as MPs, who have pointed out that such appeals were continuing despite the Centre’s directives to all departments for cutting down litigation.Recently, the Defence Minister had also issued directions to implement the recommendations of a committee of experts  that had come down heavily on the Army and the Ministry of Defence for causing agony to disabled soldiers. The committee had termed such actions contemptuous and recommended withdrawal of all appeals filed against disabled soldiers and conceding cases that were covered by the Supreme Court and High Court verdicts. Recommendations similar to the expert committee were also made by the 7th Central Pay Commission that were later accepted by the Centre.The AFT’s Chandigarh Bench had a few months ago reminded the MoD and the Army Headquarters that their frivolous appeals against disability pension of soldiers were causing great distress to the system and shaking the faith of the common person in the rule of law. It said the cost of frivolous litigation should be recovered from the officers taking such decisions.