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REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 4474 OF 2005
Union of India & Anr. .... Appellants
Versus
C.S. Sidhu .... Respondent
O R D E R
Heard Mr. Parag P. Tripathi, learned Addl. Solicitor
General appearing for the appellants.
2. There is no appearance on behalf of the respondent
today.
3. This appeal by special leave is directed against the
impugned judgment and order dated 11.12.2003 of the Division
Bench of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana whereby the writ
petition filed by the respondent herein (writ petitioner
before the High Court) has been allowed and the appellants
herein (respondents before the High Court) have been
directed to count the entire period of full pay commissioned
service of the respondent from 22.06.1968 to 23.06.1978 as
qualifying service and calculate his disability pension in
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accordance with pension scales as on 23.6.1978 and give him
all other benefits inuring therefrom.
4. The facts in detail have been given in the impugned
judgment and order. Hence, we are not repeating the same
here.
5. The question involved in this appeal is whether the
full pay commissioned service rendered by the respondent
herein from 22.06.1968 to 23.06.1978 is to be counted as
qualifying service by the Union of India for the purpose of
granting disability pension to the respondent.
6. The respondent herein was an officer in the Indian
Army who was given a short service commission on 22.06.1968.
A short service commission is given for 5 years and can be
extended by another 5 years only. He was posted at a high
altitude field area and while on duty on 21.11.1970, he met
with an accident and suffered severe injuries. As a result
of the accident, respondent’s right arm had to be amputated.
He also suffered a compound fracture of the femur (thigh
bone) and fracture of the mandible (jaw bone). He was
released from service of Army on 23.6.1978. For his
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disability pension, the period taken into account by the
Army authorities was only from 22.6.1968 to 21.11.1970.
Aggrieved by the said decision of the Army authorities, the
respondent filed a writ petition before the High Court which
has been allowed by the impugned judgment and order. Hence,
the appellants are in appeal before us.
7. We have gone through the impugned judgment and order
and we are in full agreement with the Division Bench of the
High Court that for the purposes of qualifying service for
disability pension the entire period of commissioned service
rendered by the respondent from 22.6.1968 to 23.6.1978 has
to be taken into account. Accordingly, we see no reason to
interfere with the impugned judgment and order of the High
Court. The appeal is accordingly dismissed. No order as to
the costs. Arrears with 8% interest per annum will be paid
to the respondent within three months.
8. Before parting with this case, we regret to say that
the army officers and army men in our country are being
treated in a shabby manner by the government. In this case,
the respondent, who was posted at a high altitude field area
and met with an accident during discharge of his duties, was
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granted a meager pension as stated in Annexure-P3 to this
appeal. This is a pittance (about Rs. 1000/- per month plus
D.A.). If this is the manner in which the army personnel
are treated, it can only be said that it is extremely
unfortunate. The army personnel are bravely defending the
country even at the cost of their lives and we feel that
they should be treated in a better and more humane manner by
the governmental authorities, particularly, in respect of
their emoluments, pension and other benefits.
…………………J.
(MARKANDEY KATJU)
…………………J.
(A.K. PATNAIK)
NEW DELHI;
MARCH 31, 2010