Union of India through its Secretary v. SGT Girish Kumar and Ors.
Background
A batch of appeals arose from conflicting orders of the Armed Forces Tribunal on how far back "arrears" of disability pension could be paid to ex-servicemen. In the lead case, an Indian Air Force serviceman discharged in 2008 with a service-related disability was later granted "broad banding" (an upward revision) of his disability pension by the Tribunal, following the Supreme Court's 2014 ruling in Union of India v. Ram Avtar. The Union of India challenged Tribunal orders that awarded arrears without any three-year cut-off, while the ex-servicemen, in their own appeals, wanted arrears from their actual date of discharge rather than a restricted period.
Decision Breakdown
The Court held that disability pension is a vested, property-like right (protected under Article 300A) and not a bounty, so once judicially and administratively affirmed, it cannot be curtailed by invoking limitation, delay or laches. It noted that the Union of India itself had, through government orders (notably one dated 18.04.2016), made a conscious policy decision to pay such arrears from 01.01.1996 or 01.01.2006, and could not later resile from that commitment. The right to claim broad banding only crystallised on 10.12.2014 (the date of the Ram Avtar judgment, which operated in rem), so claims filed thereafter could not be treated as time-barred. Consequently, the Union of India's appeals were dismissed, and the ex-servicemen's appeals were allowed, restoring their entitlement to arrears from 01.01.1996/01.01.2006 with 6% annual interest.
Lesson Learnt
Once a pension right is confirmed by law or a binding court judgment, the government cannot restrict payment of past dues merely by citing limitation or delay, especially where it has already committed in policy to a specific effective date: pensionary benefits, including for service-related disability, are treated as protected property rights, not discretionary favours.