Chandigarh, April 25

After the recent instructions by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Army Headquarters to government counsels to resume filing appeals in the Supreme Court against pensionary benefits granted to disabled soldiers by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) and the High Courts, an MP and several veterans’ associations have taken up the issue with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.The move to file appeals in matters even where the point of law has already been settled by the High Courts and the Supreme Court is in contravention to Parrikar’s directives to reduce litigation. A few months ago, the Supreme Court had imposed heavy costs on the MoD for filing appeals against orders of the AFT on issues that have already been decided by the apex court.Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Chandrasekhar met Parrikar to discuss the issue, which he claimed cropped up within a few weeks of the Defence Minister expressing concern over the routine filing of appeals in the Supreme Court and urged him to put adequate safeguards in place to ensure that disability benefits are not incorrectly denied to the armed forces personnel, it is learnt.Several ex-servicemen’s associations are also up in arms against the government’s latest salvo against them. — TNS