IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.4168 of 2009 Date of decision:14.12.2009 Kuldeep Singh ....Petitioner versus Union of India and others. ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr.Arun Bansal, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Ram Chander, Central Government Counsel, for the respondents. ---- 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 ? ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. The point involved in this writ petition is the entitlement to the grant of disability pension for a person, who has obtained a disability during his annual leave. Both the counsel agree that the very same point had been the subject of adjudication before a Division Bench of this Court in Gurjit Singh Versus Union of India and others in Civil Writ Petition No.648 of 2007. In the said judgment, the Division Bench has held on pointed reference to Regulation 179 of the Pension Regulations that a person sustaining injury/disability during his service engagement, although being on annual leave, would still be entitled to disability pension, for the disability would be deemed to be attributable to and aggravated by military service. In view of the judgment of a Division Civil Writ Petition No.4168 of 2009 - 2 - Bench ruling to which this Court is bound, the writ petition shall stand allowed granting to the petitioner the relief as sought for. 2. Learned counsel appearing for the respondents states that the judgment of a Division Bench of this Court, dated 20.02.2008, has been stayed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. It makes no difference, for I concur with the reasoning adopted by the Hon'ble Division Bench. It is also pointed out that relief, which the petitioner seeks for, shall be adjudicated only before the Army Tribunal constituted under the Army Tribunal Act, 2007, for, this Court, I am informed, has been granting reliefs in respect of fully covered matters even after the constitution of a Tribunal. The Act which constitutes a Tribunal and which makes provision for transfer of provision under Section 34 of the Act, still does not oust the jurisdiction of the High Court in respect of matters granting relief under Article 226 of the Constitution. There cannot be, therefore, any impediment for the Court to grant the reliefs as sought for. 3 The writ petition is allowed. There shall be however no directions as to costs. (K.KANNAN) 14.12.2009 JUDGE sanjeev