PIL on mass litigation by Defence Ministry against disabled soldiers: Punjab and Haryana High Court seeks Centre's response

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday issued notice to the Central government on a public interest litigation (PIL) flagging mass litigation by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) against disabled soldiers. [Lt. Col Sadhu Singh Sohi v. Union of India and Ors].A Bench of Acting Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji issued notice on the plea and listed the matter for hearing on July 29..The PIL filed by Lieutenant Colonel Sadhu Singh Sohi, President of the Ex-Servicemen Grievances Cell in Mohali, alleges that the Ministry of Defence has been challenging almost all verdicts passed by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) granting disability benefits to disabled personnel. This action is purportedly undertaken on the advice of the Indian Army's Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch..Sohi has averred that this new policy of the MoD and JAG to “flood the Courts with en masse, unethical, damaging and unnecessary litigation against disabled soldiers and old pensioners,” is in total contravention of the directions of the Prime Minister (PM) and of high-level committees of the Law & Defence Ministries to end such litigation, and will burden the exchequer as well as disabled soldiers. The PIL states that pursuant to the PM’s intervention, the MoD had withdrawn appeals from the Supreme Court in 2019. However, it is now flooding the courts again with similar cases. It points out that the government had decided to challenge only those verdicts which involved disabilities due to negligence, intoxication and substance-abuse..According to the PIL, close to 1,000 appeals filed by the MoD against disabled soldiers were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2014, leading to the PM directing the Defence Minister to constitute a high-level committee of experts which came down heavily on the Army and MoD for indulging in “ego-fuelled” litigation.This was followed by a communication by then Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi asking the MoD not to “cause loss to the State and embarrassment to the government.” The apex court had thereafter passed strictures against MoD for challenging settled pension matters..The PIL avers that in 2023, a series of coercive orders were passed by AFT against MoD officials for not complying with judgments for years together, which led to the issuance of a policy for challenging all orders passed in favour of disabled veterans. It has been stated that JAG officials have taken the opinions of senior law officers to initiate such litigation without informing them of the correct legal position and practical realities of the tough conditions of service of soldiers. They have also been "hiding" past government decisions taken to withdraw such litigation, it is claimed.The petition states that ministries such as the Ministry of Finance have taken appreciable steps to curtail litigation, but the MoD remains unaffected and is bent upon washing out the efforts of the PMO and the government as a whole by clogging the justice delivery system with unethical litigation.Therefore, it has sought quashing of orders by the MoD which instruct challenging AFT orders in disability pension matters. .The petitioner was represented by Advocate AS Narang.Advocates Maneesh Bali and Rohit Verma appeared for the Central government..[Read order]