The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the Armed Forces Tribunal’s decision granting a special family pension to the mother of a deceased Army soldier who died from cancer, rejecting the Centre’s appeal against it. The court observed that prolonged stress and strain during military service can contribute to the development of cancer and therefore ruled that the disease was attributable to military duty.
The division bench of Justices Harsimran Singh Sethi and Vikas Suri made the remarks while dismissing the Centre’s petition that sought to overturn the 2019 order of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), Chandigarh. The tribunal had earlier directed that Kumari Salochna Verma, mother of the deceased soldier, be granted special family pension from the date of her son’s death in 2009.
According to court documents, Verma’s son had joined the Indian Army on December 12, 2003, after being declared medically fit in all respects. He was later diagnosed with retroperitoneal sarcoma with widespread metastasis and succumbed to the illness on June 24, 2009. The medical board, however, had concluded that his disease was “neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service,” a finding that the Centre relied on to deny special pension benefits.
The court, however, disagreed with the Centre’s contention. Referring to a 2013 Supreme Court judgment in Dharamvir Singh vs Union of India, the bench observed that if a soldier is medically fit at the time of enrolment but later develops a serious disease, it is to be presumed attributable to or aggravated by service conditions, unless proven otherwise.
The judges further cited the service rules governing military personnel, which specify that, except for cancer caused by smoking, all other forms of cancer are deemed attributable to military service. The court pointed out that the government had failed to present any cogent medical evidence showing that the disease was unrelated to service conditions.
The bench elaborated that cancer, particularly retroperitoneal sarcoma, is a multi-stage illness that develops over time rather than appearing suddenly. Stressful conditions, the court noted, can accelerate the transformation of normal cells into malignant ones. “For a period of six years, the respondent’s son served in the Army, facing multiple postings and associated stress. It can therefore be safely said that prolonged stress and strain during service contributed to the onset of cancer,” the order stated.
Concluding that the disease was indeed attributable to military service, the bench upheld the Armed Forces Tribunal’s direction for the grant of special family pension to Kumari Salochna Verma. The ruling reinforces the judiciary’s consistent stance that service-related stress and hardship can play a significant role in causing or worsening serious health conditions like cancer, entitling soldiers’ families to due compensation and pensionary benefits.
