No claim for disability pension 7 years after retirement if found fit at time of discharge: AFT

The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has held that disability benefits cannot be claimed seven years after retirement if personal was found to be fit during medical examination at the time of superannuation.

Rejecting the claim for disability filed by two Brigadiers who had retired in 2011 and 2015 after being assessed to be in ‘SHAPE – 1’ by a release medical board the Tribunal’s Bench comprising Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta and Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, in separate orders, ruled that the question of entitlement of the applicant to disability pension cannot be determined on the basis of medical examination conducted more than seven years after retirement.

In the first case, a Brigadier had contended that he was posted in field area of Poonch where he was first found to be suffering from primary hypertension in April 1991. He said that the disability thus existed prior to retirement and in periodic medical examination his blood pressure and pulse were higher than normal.

The second Brigadier claimed that he was detected with primary hypertension in November 1995 while serving in Siachen. After retirement in 2015, he opted for re-employment and was posted to Tezpur, where his duties involved travelling to high altitude areas frequently, thus aggravating his disability.

Both the officers contended that their disability was not considered by the authorities at the time of retirement and Release Medical Board was not been conducted. Their claims for grant of disability pension were denied and the first appeal against the denial was rejected in 2023 and the second appeal was rejected in 2024.

The Bench observed that under pension rules, cases in which a disease was not present at the time of retirement from service but arose within seven years thereafter, may be recognised as attributable to service if it can be established by the competent medical authority that the disability is delayed manifestation of a pathological process set in motion by service conditions obtaining prior to discharge.

On holding a resurvey medical board to assess their medical condition, the Bench said that after a lapse of more than seven years from the date of retirement, it will not be appropriate to direct the authorities to conduct a post-discharge medical board or re-survey medical board (RSMB) to assess his disability.