BINOD KUMAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AFTER having served the Army for a period in excess of 15 years and few months a Courts Martial awarded the punishment of dismissal to the petitioner when he was serving as Sepoy (Sep/MT), i. e. as member of the rank and file. Service cf 15 years in Army entails pension. Petitioner having been denied pension has approached this Court by filing the present writ petition.

(2.) THE learned counsel appearing in support of the writ petition, on the basis of the provisions contained in Section 71 of the Army Act, 1950, has submitted that there is a distinction in between the punishment of dismissal from service and sentenced to dismissal. In order to highlight the arguments, he has drawn my attention to Clauses (e) & (k) of Section 71 of the said Act. Clause (e) provides dismissal from the service as one of the punishments awardable by Courts Martial in terms of the said Section of the said Act; whereas Clause (k) provides for forfeiture in the case of a person sentenced to cashiering or dismissal from the service of all arrears of pay and allowances and other public money due to him at the time of such cashiering or dismissal, a yet another punishment awardable by the Courts Martial in terms of the said Section of the said Act.

(3.) THE above submission was made by the learned counsel for the petitioner only to get out from Clause 113(a) of the Army Pension Regulations, 1961. Regulation 112 is contained in Chapter III of the said Regulations. Regulation 112 provides that Chapter III shall apply to persons as that of the writ petitioner. Regulation 113(a) provides that an individual, who is dismissed under the provisions of the Army Act, is ineligible for pension or gratuity in respect of previous service. It further provides that in exceptional cases, however, he may, at the discretion of the President be granted service pension or gratuity at a rate not exceeding that for which he would have otherwise qualified had he been discharged on the same date. If the petitioner can establish that dismissal from the service and sentenced to dismissal are different species, he can avoid the provisions of Regulation 113(a) of the said Regulations and for that purpose, he had made the arguments as noted above and rejected.