Union Of India & Anr vs C.S. Sidhu

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 2

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 3

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 4

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