Punjab and Haryana High Court Upholds Armed Forces Tribunal's Orders Granting Enhanced Disability Pension to Veterans

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed thirteen writ petitions filed by the Union of India, each challenging Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) decisions that had granted rounded-off disability pensions to former Army personnel discharged on superannuation or completion of tenure. The court relied on two binding Supreme Court rulings, namely, Union of India v. Ram Avtar (2014) and Bijender Singh v. Union of India (2025) , which make it clear that disabilities must be rounded off as follows: to 50 per cent if assessed below 50 per cent, to 75 per cent if between 50 per cent and 75 per cent, and to 100 per cent if above 75 per cent, irrespective of the mode of discharge.

Key Takeaways:

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld thirteen Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) orders granting enhanced disability pensions to former Army personnel.
The court relied on two binding Supreme Court rulings, namely, Union of India v. Ram Avtar (2014) and Bijender Singh v. Union of India (2025), to uphold the AFT orders.
The AFT orders granted full benefits to 13 ex-servicemen, including ex-Havildar Deepak Kumar Singh, Lt. Col. Suresh Kumar (Retd), and ex-Sepoy Mandeep Singh.
The Centre's argument that the benefit of rounding off disability element of pension was restricted to personnel invalided out of service was rejected by the High Court.
The court observed that there was no illegality in the AFT orders, which granted the benefit of rounding off the disability element of disability pension to the ex-servicemen.

Statistics:

13 writ petitions filed by the Union of India against the AFT decisions were disposed of by the High Court.
13 Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) orders were upheld by the High Court.
13 ex-servicemen benefited from the AFT orders, including ex-Havildar Deepak Kumar Singh, Lt. Col. Suresh Kumar (Retd), and ex-Sepoy Mandeep Singh.
The AFT orders granted full benefits to 5 ex-servicemen, including ex-Havildar Deepak Kumar Singh, Lt. Col. Suresh Kumar (Retd), ex-Sepoy Mandeep Singh, and two others.
8 ex-servicemen benefited from the AFT orders with a disability pension rounded off to 75 per cent or 100 per cent.

Sources:

The Times of India (2025)
Union of India v. Ram Avtar (2014)
Bijender Singh v. Union of India (2025)