UNION OF INDIA Vs. DEV RAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, through the medium of the present writ petition filed in the year 2025, have assailed the order dtd. 29/11/2018 passed by the Armed Forces Tribunal, Srinagar Bench at Jammu (hereinafter referred to as "the AFT") in Original Application No. 570/2018, titled "Dev Raj Vs. Union of India and others", whereby the respondent-applicant has been held entitled to the benefit of rounding off his disability by computing it at 50% instead of 30% with effect from 1/9/1996, and the order dtd. 31/7/2018 passed by the petitioners has been set aside.

(2.) By way of the present petition, the petitioners seek the quashing of the order dtd. 29/11/2018. It is submitted that the learned AFT erred in law by failing to consider the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India passed in case titled Union of India Vs. Tarsem Singh, Civil Appeal Nos.5151-5152 of 2008, wherein the issue relating to the period for which the arrears are payable to the respondent-applicant stands settled. It is further contended on behalf of the petitioners that the learned AFT did not appreciate the material fact that the respondent-applicant had approached the learned AFT seeking the benefit of rounding off of his disability pension after an inordinate delay of 22 years.

(3.) Learned counsel for the respondent-applicant has raised a preliminary objection regarding the entertainability of this petition, citing a delay of nearly seven years in challenging the impugned order. In support of this contention, he has placed reliance upon the order dtd. 28/7/2025 passed by a Division Bench of this Court in WP(C) No. 2003/2025, wherein a similar petition was dismissed on the sole ground of a seven-year delay.