Supreme Court refuses to review order directing IAF to pay ₹1.6 crore compensation to veteran

The Supreme Court recently refused to interfere with its earlier order directing the Indian Air Force (IAF) to pay around ₹1.6 crores as compensation to a veteran who contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during a blood transfusion at a military hospital [CPL Ashish Kumar Chauhan Retd v. Col Sanjay Nijhawan and ors]..A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Prasanna B Varale held that no case for review was made out and dismissed a review petition filed by the IAF and the Army in the matter."The judgment and order under review does not suffer from any error, much less apparent error, warranting its reconsideration. That apart, no other sufficient ground has been set up for granting the relief claimed in the Review Petition. The Review Petition is, accordingly, dismissed," the Court said in its April 3 order. .In its September 2023 judgment, the apex court had ordered the IAF to pay the amount as compensation for medical negligence.The Court had also criticised the IAF and the Army for their conduct and held them vicariously liable, both jointly and severally.The correctness of this judgment was questioned by the IAF and the army by their review petition, which has now been dismissed. .Notably, in January this year, the Supreme Court had asked the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force to respond in the contempt of court case filed by the officer in question, Ashish Chauhan, for not releasing the compensation amount..The case before the Court stemmed from an incident that took place after the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, following which there were heightened tensions at the India-Pakistan border. During operation Parakram in 2002, the veteran fell sick and was admitted to a military hospital in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba, where one unit of blood was transfused into his body.In 2014, he was diagnosed with HIV. Consequently, he requested information regarding the Personal Occurrence Report (POR) related to his hospitalisation in 2002, and his medical case sheet was provided. Subsequently, in 2014 and 2015, medical boards were convened, and it was eventually determined that his HIV condition was linked to the blood transfusion.Thereafter, the veteran was denied an extension of service and was discharged in May 2016. His application for a disability certificate was also denied on the ground that there was no provision for the same.The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) had dismissed the veteran's plea for ₹95.31 crore in compensation. This decision was challenged before the Supreme Court, which eventually took a critical view of the superficial attention given to the officer during the blood transfusion.The Court had proceeded to opine that the veteran must be compensated and pegged the amount payable as follows:- ₹86.73 lakh for loss of earnings;- ₹50 lakh for mental agony;- ₹18 lakh towards future medical care expenses;- ₹5 lakh for litigation expenses.Further, the IAF and the Army had been directed to cooperate with future medical treatment and bear the veteran's travel expenses for bi-monthly checkups.Advocate Vanshaja Shukla assisted the top court as an amicus curiae..[Read order]