Armed Forces – Air Force – Disability pension – Entitlement – Disability pension consisting of a service element and a disability element – Appellant, an Air Force Officer, was superannuated from service – His disability was less than 20% – Whether appellant not having 20% disability was at all entitled to disability pension – Held: Both Regulation 37(a) of the Pension Regulations and Para
8.2 of Circular dated 31.01.2001 issued by Ministry of Defence clearly provided that disability element was not admissible if the disability was less than 20% – In view of the provisions, appellant was not entitled to disability pension – Consequently, there was no question of rounding off (of his disability) by applying the provisions of Para 7.2 of the Circular, as done by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) – AFT erred in applying the principles of rounding off (of disability) without determining whether appellant was entitled to disability pension at all – When appellant is not entitled to disability pension, there would be no question of rounding off (of his disability) by application of the provisions of Para 7.2 – Defence Service Regulations – Pension Regulations for the Air Force, 1961 – rr.37(a),
(b) – Circular dated 31.01.2001 issued by Ministry of Defence – Para 7.2 and 8.2.
Allowing the appeal, the Court
HELD: 1. A bare reading of rr.37(a), (b) of the Pension Regulations for the Air Force, 1961 makes it clear that an officer of the Air Force who retires on attaining the age of superannuation is entitled to disability pension only if disability is assessed at 20% or above. Furthermore, this disability must be attributable or aggravated by service rendered in the Air Force. [Para 3] [992-E]
2. Para 7.2 of Circular dated 31.01.2001 issued by the Ministry of Defence which deals with officials of Armed Forces invalided out under circumstances mentioned in Para 4.1 provides that they would be entitled to rounding of the disability. Therefore, if the disability was less than 50%, it would be rounded off to 50%. If the disability was between 50 and 75% it would be rounded off to 75%. If the disability was between 76 and 100% it would be rounded off to 100%. Para 8.2 of the said circular falls under the heading of Disability Element on Disability/Discharge and provides that the provisions contained in Para 7.2 shall not be applicable for computing disability element in cases where the disability was less than 20%. Both Regulation 37(a) and Para
8.2 clearly provide that the disability element is not admissible if the disability is less than 20%. In that view of the matter, the question of rounding off would not apply if the disability is less than 20%. If a person is not entitled to the disability pension, there would be no question of rounding off. [Paras 6, 9][993-D-F; 994-B]
3. The Armed Forces Tribunal (‘AFT’) put the cart before the horse. It applied the principles of rounding off without determining whether the petitioner/applicant before it would entitled to disability pension at all. In view of the provisions, the original petitioner/applicant before the AFT is not entitled to disability pension. Therefore, the question of applying the provisions of Para 7.2 would not arise in his case. In this view of the matter, the order of the AFT is set aside. [Paras 10, 11] [994-C-D]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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