The Ministry of Defence has revised its rules for casualty pension and disability compensation awarded to armed forces personnel. A new Guide to Medical Officers 2023, which details the norms for conducting the various types of medical boards that decide the percentage of disability and its attributability to military service, has also been issued. This policy is based on the recommendations of a study group that comprised members from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, and MoD. The mandate is to update the rules by incorporating all relevant policy changes since the issuance of the Entitlement Rules 2008.
On the face of it, the aim of the new policy is to streamline the process, improve it, and curb abuse and misuse of the provision, particularly with respect to ‘lifestyle’ diseases. As per the Integrated Defence Staff, “No changes have been made either in the nature or the extent of death and disability compensation that is awarded to entitled personnel. This will have a prospective effect and takes care of the genuine interest of all our soldiers, veterans and widows.”
However, the reality seems to be different, with financial considerations and incompetence in preventing misuse negatively impacting soldiers’ welfare.
A backdoor attempt
Death and disability pension for soldiers is a sensitive subject and requires broader parliamentary, media, and public debate. Unfortunately, politicians, the media and serving/retired soldiers—except those directly affected by the development—often have only a superficial understanding of the subject.
Since the new policy has come into effect prospectively even veterans have not been very outspoken about it. Ironically, in the past, our high courts, the Supreme Court, and the Armed Forces Tribunal have rationally interpreted death and disability compensation and modified the interpretation of existing rules. The new policy is a backdoor attempt to negate the progressive actions taken by the courts and at times the government itself, over the years.
The All India Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association wrote a scathing letter criticising the policy, “Disability Benefits in the Defense Services have taken the current form over a period of almost 85 years through various regulations, government orders, pay commission recommendations approved by the Union Cabinet and decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and various Hon’ble High Courts…However, it seems that the members of the Defense Services are children of a lesser God. Contravening al rules, regulations, letters, including decisions made right up to the Union Cabinet and judgments of Hon’ble Courts, the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare of the MOD on the insistence of the finance department of MOD, has issued new Disability & Death Rules (Entitlement Rules) … which have not only restricted disability and death benefits, but have turned the clock back to 85 years rather than liberalising the benefits with the changing times and improving sensitivity and perception towards disability.” The detailed statement of the association was circulated on the social media.
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Controversial provisions
Under the existing rules, soldiers with a disability of 20 percent or more were granted disability pension, which included the ‘disability element’ and ‘service element’, that is, normal pension for the number of years of service. In the new rules, the ‘disability element’ of pension, granted to disabled personnel who retire or are discharged on terms of engagement, will now be called ‘impairment relief’ and will not be treated as pension.
Even personnel who suffer disabilities in operational areas or during war will be granted ‘war injury relief’ instead of war injury pension. This has apparently been done to deny disabled soldiers income tax exemption on pension under a provision of the Income Tax Act 1922, which had already been unilaterally modified by Central Board of Direct Taxes on the advice of the Defence Accounts Department. However, Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh had clarified, in Parliament that “I will look into this”, and the decision was held in abeyance.
The conditions for invalid pension have also been changed regressively. It was granted to personnel who were invalided out of service due to a disability neither attributable nor aggravated by military service. The requirement for a minimum of 10 years of qualifying service for this pension was done away with in a Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare letter dated 16 July 2020 after intervention of the Supreme Court.
Surprisingly, the requirement of 10 years of service has been reintroduced, which is a retrograde step. A soldier with five years of service who meets with an accident while not on duty and is discharged due to an unacceptable disability will not receive any form of pension. If this change is due to an oversight, it only reflects a casual approach to framing the rules.
The anomaly of not granting disability pension to disabled cadets at military academies who are invalided out of service, which has been severely criticised for a long time, has again been re-iterated in the new policy. They will continue to be granted only ex-gratia payments. Civilian trainees of all government services under similar circumstances, are entitled to disability pension or invalid pension when released from service. Can there be a greater disincentive for young people aspiring to become military officers?
It is universally accepted that soldiers undergo extreme stress and strain in both war and peace. Despite this well-established norm, the new Guide to Medical Officers has become more stringent with respect to service-related diseases caused or aggravated by extreme stress and strain.
A case in point is hypertension and diabetes, whose disability percentages have been reduced from 30 per cent and 20 per cent to 5 per cent, making such soldiers ineligible for any impairment relief. Only stress and strain related to high-altitude terrain will be considered relevant for hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, with no consideration for service in high pressure peace areas or field areas as was the case till now.
These changes contradict earlier guidelines issued by the Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services. The existing rules, supported by the Supreme Court and high court judgments, and Central Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules 2023 for civilians generally serving in peace areas provide that all heart diseases and hypertension are linked with stress and strain of service without any ifs and buts.
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Soldier’s rights under siege
Death and disability compensation is the sine qua non of soldiers’ welfare. Military personnel and their family members are assured of liberal compensation by the military/government in the event of death or disability. Disabilities resulting from combat, physical injuries on duty, and diseases caused by the stress and strain of military service are well-researched topics in medical science. Based on research, a universally accepted liberal approach has been adopted. Unfortunately, the Indian government and the military are doing the opposite.
It is no rocket science that the rigorous, regimented life under the shadow of the gun, prolonged separation from family, inability to cope with domestic commitments, lack of community living, lack of sexual fulfilment, and curtailed freedoms/rights all lead to the manifestation and aggravation of common medical problems.
Given this understanding, the existing death/disability entitlement rules, as modified by judgments in India’s Supreme Court and high courts, and in line with practices in other democracies, provide a presumption of a connection between military service and disabilities. What then is the need to reinvent the wheel?
It defies imagination that, on one hand, there is immense nationalistic fervour and adulation for the armed forces, and on the other hand, their entitlement rules for death and disability are under siege. How can these rules be more stringent than similar rules for civilian government employees?
The implementation of the new entitlement rules must be suspended immediately, and these should be reviewed to remove the glaring anomalies. Failure to do so will lead to prolonged litigation to restore the status quo and further tarnish the government’s dubious reputation of battling its soldiers in the courts.
Lt Gen H S Panag PVSM, AVSM (R) served in the Indian Army for 40 years. He was GOC in C Northern Command and Central Command. Post retirement, he was Member of Armed Forces Tribunal. Views are personal.