Armed Forces Tribunal : PCDA can’t reject pension claims cleared by military authorities

CHANDIGARH: Castigating the principal chief controller of defence accounts (PCDA) for denying pension to the parents of an Indian Air Force pilot who had died during unit recreational activity, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has held that the PCDA has no jurisdiction to reject pension once it has been approved by the military authorities, and asked it to avoid similar recurrence.
Division bench comprising Justice Sunita Gupta, judicial member, and Lt Gen Bobby Cherian Mathews, administrative member of the principal bench of AFT, New Delhi has passed these orders recently while hearing an application filed by Surendra Singh Bisht, father of Flight Lieutenant Rohan Bisht.
“The case refers to the controller of defence accounts (CDA) overriding the medical authorities which is the deciding factor in such cases... It is clear that PCDA is vest with no jurisdiction of its own to reject issuance of PP and disbursement of pension once the same has been approved by the highest authority (MOD in this case),’’ the AFT has observed.
The AFT has also observed that it is incomprehensible as to how the joint director CDA (AF/pension) has stalled payment of benefits on specious ground.
The AFT asked why no suitable remedial recourse was affected by the air headquarters to bring to end this unnecessary imbroglio causing distress to the parents of a young officer who lost his life in the course of his military service. The applicant's son, Rohan Bisht, was commissioned in the Indian Air Force (IAF) in December 2004.
On February 6, 2010, he had participated along with a group of officers in recreational activity organized by 222-Squadron at the banks of river Torsa, adjoining the Subhasini Tea Estate in Hashimara (West-Bengal). He slipped and fell into the river and suffered injury to his spinal cord resulting in loss of all sensation and movement below the neck.
On March 5, 2010, he died while undergoing treatment at the military hospital.The applicant informed the tribunal that a Court of Inquiry (COI) that confirmed that Flight Lieutenant Rohan Bisht had participated in an organized recreational activity permitted by the service authority of Air Officer Commanding (AOC), 16-Wing, Air Force, and thereby he was deemed to be on duty.
The COI further opined that the cause of death of Flt Lt Bisht was attributable to military service. Although the air headquarters informed the CDA that pension is admissible to his parents as he died bachelor, but CDA rejected the claim stating that as per their opinion, the death of the officer was not attributable to military service. The AFT has now ordered the department to release dependent pension (special) by the end of July. The parents are also entitled for an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh.