Punjab & Haryana High Court Upholds AFT Order Granting Disability Pension and Rounding-Off; Rejects Centre’s Reliance on Medical Board Opinion
Case Name: Union of India & Others vs. Naresh Kumar & Another
Date of Judgment: 02 December 2025
Citation: CWP-35754-2025
Bench: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Vikas Suri
Held: The Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the Union of India’s challenge to the Armed Forces Tribunal’s order granting disability pension and rounding off benefits to an ex-serviceman suffering from “CAD Single Vessel Disease Post PCI to LAD,” holding that once a soldier is enrolled in a medically fit condition and later develops a disability during service, the law presumes it to be attributable to military service unless the employer rebuts the presumption with cogent evidence.
Summary: The respondent served in the Indian Army for twenty-six years and was discharged with a twenty-percent disability assessed for life. The Release Medical Board opined that the disability was neither attributable to nor aggravated by service. The Tribunal nevertheless granted disability pension and rounded the disability to fifty percent from 1 May 2020.
Challenging the order, the Union of India argued that the Medical Board’s opinion should prevail. The High Court rejected this, relying on the settled principles in Dharamvir Singh, Ram Avtar, and the recent Supreme Court judgment in Bijender Singh. These judgments establish that if no disability existed at the time of entry into service, it must be presumed that the disability arose due to service conditions, and the burden lies on the employer to prove otherwise. The Court noted that no material had been produced by the Centre to rebut this presumption or to show that the disease was pre-existing or unrelated to military service. It also reaffirmed that rounding off of disability is mandatory for all eligible personnel, regardless of mode of discharge.
Decision: Finding no perversity or legal infirmity in the Tribunal’s reasoning, the High Court upheld the award of disability pension and rounding off to fifty percent and dismissed the writ petition.