a t\It ,< lN TF|E HtcH couRT oF DELHI AT NEW DELHI r -. + w.P(Cl Nos: s_949t20o7, 938212007, 9389t2007 , 9454t2007, 1g!/=2p08. 4=801?g!_8r. 1418{2008, , +!7gt?oog. ?Q3gt4QoB, 2B3t?0o8 , ?69?/2008, ?q8=1/2Q08, ,268412008, , ?L_24?9a8. J_r?gl?aos.. 3245/2oon,--st2s,2ocf.- 6zifr'od. ?s_91?q08. ??921200 7. ??88t2007. 3=0t?g_0.q.. 4e3t2oo\, , 1?1+l?908. 1=21?/?gg8, 1378/2008. 1m. \4??t?Qq/g. L+7=3='?o.q8=. !06I-167r|20 . ?03?r7oog, zi4_3.zlqo,zoo6. . 9_3_4?/,?oo7. 6s1+pp-9. 6e4s|2o05, 73 _ 928?t2007 , q!?5t?007 , 842et2007 , 8467 t?oo7 . 848mw . ?!9?t?007 , 9g99t?0o7 . B?+Z t2007 . egaznoot , eroi t2oo7:-gJfFtzow . glz7rzoot, gjJtzoot. grcqtzoot. glM, g27 el2oo7 . e?7gr2oo7, s6r8t2oo7, emw, 9g2srzooz, s0+elzooz, e:_so/zoos. 1m. !!?i20oe. __ reoizooe,. - ______Zt9lLA!& ??.Q r?ooe .zg o t.zggg,z q0 izooe .zsr t zood., 3sz t2oolj-Zii tzols, :02/?q98, s1a/?ggg, !?1/200s. s3s/2obm !41/?008. s6?{2ggg. s6e/2008. s81/2008;m, Zgt4?oqq, 786.4?ggq, q04/2008. 824l20bm, 914{?908, 88?42ggq. e2sl2008. e30iz . 932i?99q. e40l=2099 .e4J4008. e43l2b . 9691-00e. gzorz9g,q.. gzzlzooe. g7s . 1973/2008. 1=1491?0Q8, 1146/2008. 11m. 1?91'299q.t2ggt?999, 1273/2008, 1381/2008, 1387/2Q08, tzgltffis -ta15/?ooR !0_92'?A_99. r-68.3_/.?99?. L684t2o !!?t ryaoa, u79_t.zggg, tt3otzoo , +!3s_t299?, 17 4.gt?a_gg, t7 4u2do . +z!0_t?a_99, t7 4_7Jz_A-gg. 17 4Bt2 r?_?=v?o_gg, \E,gt?o_og. 203 ?e_7u?goq. zzas=Eggg. 2277 t2o z1?!r.z_999, ?z+.9:?ggg. zsqs,zodl 008, 238 ffi l??Z{?999 ano 33r=21_zoop, :z: lg9g{?999, 143=s/?o_08. e152 374712008. 3784/2908. 3o WP (C) No.5946 of 2007 and other connected matters Page 7 of 8 Certify that the digital file and physical file have been compared and the digital data is as per the physical file and no page is missing. Signature Not Verified tr SUBEDAR(SIfi") PUTTAN LAL AND OTHER CONNECTED P-ETITIONERS Through: ...PETITIONER(S) Advocates for the petitioners. Versus ...RESPONDENTS Major K. Ramesh, Mr. Amol Rattan Singh, Ms. Neelam Rathore, Col. S.R. Kalkal, Mr. Rajeev Anand, Mr, C.M. Khanna,. Mr. Viraj R. Datar, Col. C.f. Sharma, Col. A.S. Chauhan, Mr. Mohan KUmar, Mr. N.L. eureju, Mr. Hitender Sakkarwal, Mr.Sudhir Mittal, Mr. EJ. Va-ighese, Mr. K.uljiwan Goyal, Mr. Alok Kishor, Mr. Kundan liumar, Mr. Anil Kumar pandey, Mr, Rajeev Anand, Mr. B.p. Shukla, Mr. s.M. Dalal, Mr. D.s. Kauntae, wtr.sournyalit Pani, Dr.Alok K.Sharma, Mr.R.D.Tybgi, Captain K.M.Saxena, Ms. Rekha palli with lvts. punSrn"Singh, Mr. s'L. Kumar with Mr. B.K. Ahruwaria, cor'.S.s.c"hhawar, Mr. A.K. Bakshi with Mr. Romesh Gautam, Ms.Bandana Shukla, Mr.R,K.Sharma, Mr.Aagney Sail" O n4i.nOnif. Kumar, Mr.M.S,Sasan, Dr.R.Slsaian, Mr.A.K.Triuudi, . Ms.lag.rati Singh for Mr. M.K.Bhardwaj, Mr.S.K.Kumar, Mr.B.V.K.Ahluwalia and Ms.Rita Hingmang, Through: , Mr. Ashwani Bhardwaj, Mr. Manoj Ohri, Mr. Hemant Gupta, Mr. puneet. Khurana, Ms.Monica darg, n,|r.stratcir Hasan, Mr.Amiet Andrey, Mr. saroj' eidaw-it, a;i:- ii Balasub'ramaniam,Mr. Aakash pralap, Ms. Barkha Babbar, Ms. sonia Mathur, Mr. pankaj Batra, rt,|r. nnir . Gautam, Mr. M.M. Beg,. Mr. Saleem RhmeO,'f,,rfr.Sf..,il'" singh, Mr.yogesh Varma, Mr.prakash Kumar, UNION OF INDIA & ORS. 7 4 4 WP (C) No.59a6 oI 2OO7 ond other ionnected matters Poge 2 of I \ry l'l Mr.Jaswinder _ Singh, Ms. Monika Garg, Mr. 'Glurav Liberhan, Ml.Rohit Malik, Mr.Jatin Dhawanl' Mr. M.y. Khan, Mr. Amiet Andray, Mr. s.M. 2urfiqar Aram, _ fvis.Jyoti Singh, Mr. Ankur Chhi@h, Mr.Pankaj Batra, Mr. sareem Ahmed with Mr, Habidur Rahman, {r,.S.anjay Katyal with Mr. Ranjeet KumarJha, N4r. Vikas Sethi wiflr Ms. tvlaninder Acharya, Ittr, !aj9n Sabharwal with Ms. Seema Bh-adauriya, Mr. Pushkar Sood with Mr. Varun Kathuria, ' Mr. Sewa Ram with Mr. R.K. Bachchan. -' Mr. Dalip Mehra with Mr. Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Mr' Jai Bansai and Mr. Viveksingh, Advocates, proxy for Ms. Madhu Sharan, Mr. Sanjay Katyal, Mr. R.V. Sinha, Mr. A,S. Singh and Mr,puneet Khurana, Advocates .arotg with coroner G,s.Aur and-_Malor s.s. @ipondents. Advocates for the Respondents. CORAM: HOht'BLE N1R. JUSTTCE SANJAY KISHAN r..AUL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MOOL CHAND GARG 1. Whether the Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to Reporter or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? SAtllAY KISHAN f..AUL, l. (ORAL) 1. The common question which arises for consideration in this batcir of petitions is as to whether an army personnel could have been discharged from service without holding the Invaliding Medical Board ('lMB' for short). A Division Bench of this court had held against the respondents against which the resp.ondents preferred a special Leave petition. since the Hon'ble supreme court was seized of the matter, it issued directions that this court should stay its hand till the authoritative pronouncement of the supreme court is available on this aspect. we may also note that interim orders \r,iere granted by this Court, but the Supreme Court vacated the interim orders and in view thereof a general WP (C) I'to.5946 ol 2007 ond other cannected matters Poge i oJ 8 I interim order was passed by this court on 14.05.200g k"upingl in mind the orders passed bi, the supreme court whereby the benefit of stay was restricted to the service personnel continuing in the accommodation provided by the Army. 2. The supreme Court has delivered a judgment in civil Appeal No.6587/2008 in union of India & ors v. Rajpal sinqh on 07.11.2008. The question which has been decided has been succinctly set out in para 2 of the order itself as to u,rhether the holding of an IMB is a condition precedent for discharge of a .junior Commissioner Ol-ficer (JCO,) on' account of low nredical category. 3. we may add here that this principle would actually apply not .only to the JCos alone, but also to all the personnel Below officers Rank ('pBoRs' for short)., The conclusion of the supreme court is that the High court'was correct in holding that the PBoRs could not be clischarged from service without holding an lMB. 4. The resuii of the aforesaid judgment is that all the present petitions are liable to be allowed. 5, we have heard the counsel for the parties for purposes of concluding as to what directions are required to be passed in the present petitions. The following directions are accordingly issued: i) The order passed by the chief of Army staff dated 12.o4.20a7 directing discharge of all the personnel in Low Medical Category without holcling the tMB is quashed. ii) The petitioners.who stand discharged as a consequence of the aforesaid order are entiilecl to be reinstated with all WP (C) I'to.5946 of 200) ond other connected motters Itnnc A nf I . consequential benefits intluding continuity of service, pay and allowances and seniority as per the rules,.-- ..:.---.--..-. iii). . The petitioners would report to their respective Regimental Centre from where they have been discharged within a period of 30 days from today for joining\ The pay and allowances and other n€66ritr to .such of the petitioners who have not been paid the pension and retiral benefits including by AGIF arising from the discharge order will be remitted . within a maximum period of thrbe.' months from tod'ay. ' Naturally, this would be applicable only to such of the petitioners who join within the aforesuiO tir". iul. There are certain petitioners who have been paid pension, retiral benefits and amount by AGIF and if they seek to re-join naturally they have to refund the amount. However, they are .; also entitled to be paid the oav arld.EllgW_e.lcSs. .Thus o.nty the . i,;.:'.,...,j,i,.,.-l :1;,l-;i.1,,;;'r:;,;i.*-;i",.':.!;;'ti+l'.iii. , ."-.r-: ;' ::, . ' ,.."' 1..1,, ' net'amount has to'Qe refund€jd'bV theim..ilThe respond.en[s will .' ' . , l". i;i.' infoim .such persoris about the net ";imount which has to be refunded back by them and the amount be remitted by such persons within 30 days of intimation of the amount to be ,. remitted back by them. --' v) ln respect of . aforesaid direction .(iv), if the balance amount.is'not remitted back to the respondents, it will be . deehed that such petitioners have accepted their discharge. vi) In case of the petitioners who have not been discharged, naturally the occasioh' to discharge them now would not arise without holding the tMB. r7 WP (C) No,59a6 of 2007 qnd other c6nnected motters Poge 5 oJ 8 vii)The respondents are not precluded from holding the lMBs a ..after suc.h ioining in accordance with law as per the Army Act, 1950, The Army Rules, 1954 and Army lnstructions. viii) ln view of the passage of time from the date of discharge till the date of rejoining, it will bb open to the respondents to carry out any police 'verification as . may be deemed appropriate by the responderrts. 6. we would have disposed of all these writ petitions with the aforesaid directions alone, but we are conscious of the fact ' that there are'a large number of personnel who have been discharged under the policy which has been held to be iilegal I by the supreme court. This has already started resulting in a snafe of petitions befbre this court. such policy decision was taken on 12.04.2007 and is in proximity of time. In order to ' ' .., . give cption to such other persons who may not have .' ." . : "'. --"-: . approached the court till now'arising as a conseqrience of the. ' 'l judgment of the 'supreme Court and to avoid such unnecessary spate of .litigation before this court, it has become necessary to issue certain further general directions even.in respect of the PBORs who have not approached any court till date, This is not only in the interest of such persons but also' ih the interest of the respondents and to avoid unnecessary huge litigation. 7. - lnsofar as tl" aforesaid persons are concerned, the fcillowing directions are issued: i) lndividual options will be sent by the. respondents to such . persons within two months making an offer to them to rejoin if they .so desiie as per'the aforesaid directions passed in the WP (C) No.59a5 oJ 20O7 ond other connected motters Poge 6 of 8 present writ petitions. The option letter will indicate that such optionhastobeexercisedwithinaperiodof30daysofthe receiptofthe|etter.-and-.incasetheretira|andpensionary berfefits have been paid to them' such persons must rejoin along with the amount liable to be refunded by them to the respondentswhichsha||alsobeindicatedintheoption|etter. ii)Therespondentswil|alsogiveapublicnotice/advertisement apart from issuing the individual notice in a suitable manner preferably in national newspapers' iii)lt is made clear that such persons will also be governe.d by all the directions made in respect of the petitioners herein insofar as aPPlicable. .iv)The general directions are applicable only to such of the persons who have been discharged or proposed to be discharged under the policy letter dated |2'O4'2OO7 or those who may have been discharged earlier but have already approached the competent court by filing a petition' v)lt is pointed out that there may be certain PBORS, which may also include some peiitioners, whose normal date of superannuation has already arrived or would arrive before the aforesaid option is issued. ln such cases, the persons would be entitled to only the benefit of pay and allowances for the differential period after adjusting any additional benefit arising from the premature discharge. Needless to say that those who decide not to rejoin after their premature discharge would neither be entitled to any pay and allowances nor would be required to rePaY the amount, if anY, premature discharge. wP (C) No.5946 of 20O7 ond other connected motters paid to them after their '7'l Poge 7 of 8 The petitions stand allowed with CM 77112008 in WP(C)389/200b -7/l_, / the aforesaid directions. In view of the disposal of the writ petition, the application does not survive for consideration and the same stands disposed of. NOVEMBER 20, 2OOB dm :{tir;:t:ted fih..te,s WP (C) No.5946 of 20A7.oJ1E g.tler connected matters Poge'8 of I