The Supreme Court has taken cognisance of an Indian Express report which highlighted the plight of officer cadets discharged from the armed forces on medical grounds and are now struggling to meet expenses. A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan will hear the suo motu writ petition titled ‘In Re: Cadets disabled in military training struggle’ Monday.
Sources said a bench presided by Justice Nagarathna had taken cognisance of the report and placed it before Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, who then decided that the bench presided by Justice Nagarathna herself hear it.
The August 11 report revealed how these cadets, once training at the nation’s top military institutes such as the National Defence Academy (NDA) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA) — selected after rigorous training and driven by dreams to defend the nation — are struggling now.
It said that about around 500 officer cadets have been medically discharged from these military institutes since 1985, due to varying degrees of disability incurred during training, and are now staring at mounting medical bills with an ex gratia monthly payment that is far short of what they need.
At the NDA alone, around 20 such cadets were medically discharged in just the past five years, between 2021 and July 2025.
According to rules, these cadets are not entitled to the status of ex-servicemen (ESM), which would have made them eligible under the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) for free treatment at military facilities and empanelled hospitals, since their disabilities took place during training before they were commissioned as officers.
And, unlike soldiers in this category who are entitled to ESM status, all that these officer cadets get now is an ex gratia payment of up to Rs 40,000 per month depending on extent of disability — an amount that falls far short of basic needs, they say, with medical expenses alone costing, on an average, nearly Rs 50,000 per month or more.
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After years of waiting for assistance, their hopes are now pinned on a renewed government effort to provide relief. However, The Indian Express has discovered that this initiative has been mired in red tape for over a year.
Last year, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved an important proposal aimed at increasing the monthly ex gratia payment for officer cadets who suffered major disabilities during their training at military institutes. This change would result in at least a 50 per cent increase in the compensation awarded to those who were medically discharged before they could officially join the armed forces.
The Indian Express reported that this proposal, which would require an additional compensation of about Rs 11.43 crore per year, is caught between the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Finance, with no resolution in sight.
