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The Secretary, Government of India & Ors. v. Dharambir Singh

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1063Decided 20 Sept 2019
Civil Appeal No. 4981 of 2012
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

The respondent, a Territorial Army soldier, was granted two days' casual leave in January 1999, during which he met with a scooter accident and suffered serious head and leg injuries. A Court of Inquiry found no one to blame, and the Brigade Commander's report treated the injury as attributable to military service, but the Medical Board and the Army's appellate authority rejected his claim for disability pension, holding the injury was neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service. The Armed Forces Tribunal later overturned that rejection and granted him disability pension, prompting the Government of India to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that merely being "on duty" (including while on sanctioned leave) is not sufficient by itself to make an injury attributable to military service: there must be a reasonable causal connection between the incident and military service. Since the respondent was injured in a private scooter trip to buy electrical goods for his sister, an activity wholly unconnected to his military duties, the Court held there was no such causal nexus. It set out a detailed list of guiding factors (drawn from its own and Tribunal precedents) for when a disability can be treated as attributable to service, and concluded none were satisfied here. The appeal was allowed, the Tribunal's order was set aside, and the respondent's original claim was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

Government/military personnel are not automatically entitled to disability pension for every injury suffered while on duty or leave: the injury must have a genuine, reasonable connection to the person's service duties, not arise from a purely personal or private activity.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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