{"id":9008,"date":"2026-06-29T08:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/?p=9008"},"modified":"2026-06-29T08:23:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:23:42","slug":"rajasthan-high-court-orders-payment-of-44-years-disability-pension-to-ex-air-force-corporal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/rajasthan-high-court-orders-payment-of-44-years-disability-pension-to-ex-air-force-corporal\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajasthan High Court orders payment of 44 Years’ disability pension to ex-Air Force Corporal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jaipur:<\/strong> In a significant judgment for veterans and pensioners across the country, the Rajasthan High Court has directed the Union Government and the Ministry of Defence to pay the entire arrears of the disability pension of former Indian Air Force Corporal Rattiram, whose pension was discontinued in 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rattiram, a resident of Kurukshetra, Haryana, joined the Indian Air Force in 1964 and retired in 1979 after nearly 15 years of service. At the time of his retirement, a medical board diagnosed him with bronchial asthma, assessed his disability at 30 per cent, and held that the condition was attributable to or aggravated by military service. Based on this assessment, he was granted disability pension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pension was, however, discontinued in August 1980 on the ground that he had not appeared before a re-survey medical board. Rattiram maintained that he had never received any notice requiring his appearance before such a board and continued to seek restoration of his pension for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During proceedings before the Armed Forces Tribunal, a fresh medical board conducted in 2019 found that he continued to suffer from bronchial asthma and that the disability had remained unchanged since 1980. Although the Tribunal restored his disability pension, it restricted the benefits to the period commencing in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenging this limitation, Rattiram approached the Rajasthan High Court. A Division Bench comprising Justice Dr. Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Dr. Nupur Bhati held that the Tribunal erred in restricting the arrears to 2019 when the medical evidence clearly established the continuous existence of the disability since 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court observed that the pension is a statutory right and not a matter of charity or government discretion. It further noted that the authorities failed to produce any evidence showing that Rattiram had been informed about the medical review and that the destruction of official records could not be used to deny a veteran his lawful benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowing the petition, the High Court directed the government to pay disability pension arrears from 19 August 1980 until the date of actual payment. The Court also ordered that the 30 per cent disability element be rounded off to 50 per cent in accordance with applicable rules. The payment must be made within four months, failing which the outstanding amount will carry interest at six per cent per annum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judgment is expected to have wider implications for former servicemen whose pension claims have been affected by administrative lapses, missing records, or procedural irregularities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaipur: In a significant judgment for veterans and pensioners across the country, the Rajasthan High Court has directed the Union Government and the Ministry of Defence to pay the entire arrears of the disability pension of former Indian Air Force Corporal Rattiram, whose pension was discontinued in 1980. Rattiram, a resident of Kurukshetra, Haryana, joined … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wppp_is_locked":false,"_wppp_selected_plans":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,29],"tags":[894,904,1075,1076,1091,909,897,882,1089,1079,1083,1090,1077,1078,1088,220,219,1082,300,887,902,910,1087,1084,1080,1081,43,1086,1085,905],"class_list":["post-9008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rajasthan-high-court","category-top-stories","tag-armed-forces","tag-armed-forces-tribunal","tag-bronchial-asthma","tag-defence-ministry","tag-defence-news","tag-defence-personnel","tag-disability-benefits","tag-disability-pension","tag-disability-pension-case","tag-ex-servicemen","tag-haryana","tag-high-court-verdict","tag-iaf-veteran","tag-indian-air-force","tag-indian-military-veterans","tag-justice-nupur-bhati","tag-justice-pushpendra-singh-bhati","tag-kurukshetra","tag-legal-news-india","tag-military-pension","tag-military-service","tag-pension-arrears","tag-pension-litigation","tag-pension-restoration","tag-pension-rights-india","tag-rajasthan-hc-judgment","tag-rajasthan-high-court","tag-union-government","tag-veterans-rights","tag-veterans-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9010,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions\/9010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}