Injured Army personnel, who receive a lump sum as compensation at the time of their retirement from service, shall be made eligible for war injury pension after five to 10 years, the Regional Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) here has recommended to the government.
Though a lump sum might look sufficient initially, it would not be as beneficial as grant of war injury pension on retirement, it said.
The Bench recommended the government to frame a policy for payment of war injury pension to those injured after a reasonable period of five or 10 years from their retirement.
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“We feel that such payment of lump sum compensation should be made equal to the payment of war injury pension payable to the Army personnel on their retirement,” the Bench comprising Justice V. Periya Karuppiah and Lt. Gen. K. Surendra Nath said in a recent order.
Good gesture
“We believe that this would certainly be a good gesture to the sacrifices rendered by such injured Army personnel for the sake of our nation and recommend the government to amend the said rules in favour of the war wounded at an early date.
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The issue may also be brought to the notice of the VII Pay Commission,” the Bench said.
Honarary Lieutenant Sundaraju of Thiruthuraipoondi on his retirement from service, who signed documents without proper legal advice, was given a sum of Rs. 97,578 without giving the option of choosing between disability pension and lump sum compensation.
The applicant moved the Armed Forces Tribunal seeking a direction to authorities to quash the relevant order and further direct them to sanction disability pension instead of lump sum compensation.
The application was eventually dismissed.