-1- Civil Writ Petition No.5494 of 2007. IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH ... Date of Decision: March 20, 2008. Jawala Singh ... Petitioner VERSUS Union of India and others .. Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE HEMANT GUPTA. HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MOHINDER PAL. 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? Present: Mr. Sandeep Bansal, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.Aman Chaudhary, Advocate, for the respondents. -.- MOHINDER PAL, J. The petitioner joined the Indian Army on October 09, 1968. He was invalidated out from this service on July 13, -2- Civil Writ Petition No.5494 of 2007. 1970 under Rule 13 (3) III (Iii) of the Army Rules, 1954, with disability less than 20 per cent ( i.e 15 to 19 %) due to “PARTIAL PROCLAPSE RECTUM (569)'. The Invalidating Medical Board arranged on April 22, 1970, to assess the cause, nature and degree of disablement, opined that the disability was aggravated by military service due to stress and strain of recruit training in Artillery Centre for thirteen months. The petitioner was neither granted disability pension nor service element of pension. Hence this writ petition. In the written statement filed by the respondents, it has been pleaded that disability pension to the petitioner was rejected in the year 1971, but he never challenged the same. It has also been pleaded that the Chief Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension), Allahabad, vide their letter No.G- 3/CA/70/80276/II dated February 16, 1971, had accepted the disease as aggravated by service at 20 % for ten years, but opined that a successful operation could have reduced the degree of invalidating disability to 6 to 10 % for which the petitioner had refused. Since the petitioner refused to undergo the operation, which was considered by the Chief Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension), Allahabad, as unreasonable, his disability pension claim was rightly rejected. In the replication filed by the petitioner, besides taking other pleas, it has been pleaded that if the disability of the petitioner is taken as less than 20 % at the time of -3- Civil Writ Petition No.5494 of 2007. invalidation, he is entitled for payment of service element of the disability pension as per Regulation 186 (1) of the Pension Regulations for the Army, 1961 (Part -I) (for short `the Pension Regulations). We have heard Mr. Sandeep Bansal, Advocate, appearing for the petitioner and Mr.Aman Chaudhary, Advocate, appearing for the respondents, and have gone through the records of the case. On April 18, 2007, when notice of motion was issued in this case, it was contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner that though the disability of the petitioner was assessed less than 20 %, yet he is entitled to the grant of service element of disability pension in view of Pension Regulations 183 and 186. Regulation 186 of the Pension Regulations reads as under: “ 186 (1) An individual who is invalidated out of service with a disability attributable to or aggravated by service but assessed at below 20 per cent shall be entitled to service element only. (2) xx xx xx. As stated above, it is admitted case of the parties that disability of the petitioner is attributable to and -4- Civil Writ Petition No.5494 of 2007. aggravated by military service. As such, without dilating the matter any further, we are of the view that the case of the petitioner is covered under Pension Regulation 186 (1) which clearly states that an Army personnel who has been invalidated out of service with a disability attributable to or aggravated by service but assessed at below 20 per cent shall be entitled to service element only. Resultantly, the petitioner is held entitled to be paid service element of pension as per the rates fixed by the Central Government from time to time. However, arrears of pension, so calculated, shall be restricted to three years and two months preceding the filing of this writ petition. The respondents are directed to disburse the arrears to the petitioner within three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. In case the arrears are not disbursed within the said period, the entire arrears will carry interest at the rate of nine per cent per annum from the date of expiry of three months till the date of payment. This writ petition is allowed in the above terms with no order as to costs. ( HEMANT GUPTA ) ( MOHINDER PAL ) JUDGE JUDGE March 20, 2008. ak