Overview

• A division bench of Justices Harsimran Singh Sethi and Vikas Suri dismissed the Centre’s petition against a 2019 Armed Forces Tribunal order.
• The ruling leaves in place a special family pension for Kumari Salochna Verma from the date of her son’s death.
• The court found the soldier’s cancer attributable to prolonged stress during six years of Army postings, describing cancer as a multi-stage process.
• Records show the recruit was declared medically fit on December 12, 2003, and died on June 24, 2009, of retroperitoneal sarcoma with widespread metastasis.
• A prior medical board had said the disease was not service-related, but the court noted no detailed evidence supported that view and cited rules treating most cancers as service-attributable.