The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Centre to consider enhancing the monetary compensation and insurance cover of cadets who are medically boarded out after suffering varying degrees of disabilities during military training, and come up with a scheme for resettling those who had recovered.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and P K Mishra, which had taken suo motu cognisance on August 18 of The Indian Express reports published on August 11, Thursday perused a status report filed by the government.
The bench said the monthly ex gratia amounts were fixed in 2017 and should be revised upward “particularly bearing in mind the current inflation”.
On August 18, the top court had also sought to know if the cadets had any medical insurance benefits. On Thursday, the top court said that ASG Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, “pointed out that there is an insurance scheme in place under which compensation is provided in case of death or disablement…”
The bench said: “We find that the insurance scheme currently in existence may not be adequate in the context of disablement leading to a situation where the out boarded candidates are unable to seek any other employment as such. Therefore, efforts could be made to enhance the insurance cover… and also to expand it both quantitatively as well as qualitatively in the form of group insurance on the basis of the annual entry of cadets at the NDA, IMA, OTA and other such pre-commissioning/ training institutions.”
The order said, “regarding medical reassessment…submissions were made by learned Counsel appearing for some of the out boarded cadets that there should be a reassessment for the purpose of resettlement at appropriate stages of the treatment and on completion of treatment. The respondents are requested to consider this submission and to formulate a scheme for medical reassessment once the treatment is completed… for resettlement.”
Justice Nagarathna said orally: “You must come up with some scheme. They are educated and have passed the entrance exam. If they can do a desk job, then you must give it to them as far as possible where they are located.”
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The ASG explained that a cadet is relegated to the next term if he misses 42 days of training on medical reasons in the academy. “This is done maximum thrice provided medical authorities are convinced cadet becomes fit and joins back the academy. If medical authorities are of the opinion that a cadet cannot become fit, then the invaliding procedure is initiated. Same is applicable for all training academies.”
Regarding resettlement, Bhati said, “so far there is nothing but we are trying to do something through the Directorate General of Resettlement. The difficulty is that resettlement facilities are available to ex-servicemen but (not to) cadets who are boarded out…as they get commissioned by the President only upon completion of training… we will still have to work (this) out.”
To this, Justice Nagarathna said: “Even if they are out boarded, having regard to the provisions of the Persons with Disability Act, 2016, you can come up with something. Don’t consider them as servicemen or ex-servicemen but as a category by themselves.”
Bhati pointed out that “defence forces have an exemption under the Right of Persons With Disabilities Act for initial recruitment and retaining. That is why disability pensions are there in the Armed Forces because they can’t retain personnel…”
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Justice Nagarathna said that the forces need not accommodate them in the same post but something else. Bhati said, “We have a lot of schemes for ex-servicemen like gas agencies, security agencies, petrol pumps…. there was one proposal in March 2024. But we still need to come back (to the court) on that.”
Justice Nagarathna said that the committee assessing a person for resettlement can “for instance say he is fit enough to be a teacher, or a desk job or any other employment… whether you give them a job or not is one thing, but that certificate will help them in getting employment.”
Bhati informed the SC that on August 29, the Ministry of Defence Department of Servicemen Welfare, had decided to extend ECHS benefits to out boarded candidates, which the bench welcomed.
Responding to concerns expressed by the counsel appearing on behalf of the cadets, the ASG said: “This is a first step. We will try to ameliorate as much as possible by schemes that can be brought in at any stage, My Lords feel that more is required, we are not treating it as adversarial.”
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The SC, meanwhile, appointed Senior Advocate Rekha Palli as amicus curiae. The matter will be heard next on October 7.
