Overview

• A division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur quashed nearly 300 Ministry of Defence petitions challenging Armed Forces Tribunal orders granting disability pensions.
• The court held that granting disability pensions is not an act of generosity but a rightful acknowledgment of service-incurred injuries and illnesses.
• It ruled that pension denials cannot rely on peace station postings or lifestyle disease labels, noting that all military service carries inherent physical and mental stress.
• The verdict affirmed that the September 2023 rule revision on pension entitlement applies only to personnel retiring after the effective date, with no retrospective application.
• It imposed on Release Medical Boards the duty to furnish cogent, well-reasoned justifications whenever they deem a disability neither attributable nor aggravated by service conditions.