UNION OF INDIA Vs. DIWAKAR DUTT SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant, Union of India, was the first respondent in C.W.P. No. 559 of 2002. The petitioner approached this Court praying for a direction for grant of disability pension. Learned Single Judge set aside the order of rejection of the claim of the petitioner for pension and allowed the Writ Petition.

(2.) AGGRIEVED the Union of India has thus come up in this appeal. In view of the order that we propose to pass in this appeal, we do not think it proper to go in detail into the facts of the case. The undisputed factual position is that the writ petitioner had been duly assessed by the Release Medical Board and the said Medical Board assessed the disability to the tune of 50%. According to the learned Assistant Solicitor General of India, the opinion rendered by the Release Medical Board is not binding on the Chief Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension) Allahabad and it is always open to the said Authority to have a review of the opinion thus rendered by the Medical Board with the assistance of his Medical Advisor. No doubt it is not binding on him. But we fail to understand how an assessment made by the duly constituted Medical Board of experts can be brushed aside by the Chief Controller of Defence Accounts, who does not have an opportunity to see the patient, to observe the patient, to examine the patient or to assess the disability through his medical advisor, whereas the Medical Board consisting of expert doctors have done all these and have made their assessment of disability.