Don't contest nearly every AFT ruling, HC tells Centre

CHANDIGARH: Delhi HC has cautioned the Centre against its persistent practice of contesting nearly every Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) ruling that grants pensionary relief to soldiers, saying the government should in appropriate cases "graciously" accept the tribunal's decision rather than prolong needless litigation.

"Not every perceived dispute must be turned into an adversarial battle in the courts," a division bench of Justice C Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla observed while dismissing a petition filed by the Centre against an AFT order.

The Centre had challenged the decision of the principal bench of AFT, Delhi, that granted special family pension to the widow of Major Sanjeev Chadha , who was found dead in the bathroom 25 years ago, detecting it as a case of brain haemorrhage due to hypertension.

On Nov 3, 2023, the tribunal had directed authorities not to adopt any "mechanical or hyper-technical" approach to deny relief. Aggrieved, the Centre argued that Major Chadha's death was neither attributable to nor aggravated by service.

Counsel for the applicant, Chaitanya Aggarwal, said Major Chadha joined the Army in June 1988 and died on Sept 3, 2000, while posted in New Delhi. The cause of death was recorded as intracerebral haemorrhage. He stressed that the officer neither smoked nor drank, had no family history of hypertension, and had served in stressful conditions across field and peace postings.

While rejecting the central govt's plea, the high court noted Chadha was not diagnosed with hypertension at the time of joining service. After 12 years in uniform, he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died.

"We have seen the postmortem report. It merely states Major Chadha died due to ICH from hypertension. No other cause has been identified," the HC observed, upholding the AFT ruling.