Delhi High Court imposes Rs 50K fine on Ministry of Defence, Navy for challenging settled law

The Delhi High Court has slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Indian Navy for appealing against an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal in a disability pension case, despite the law being already settled by the Supreme Court.

The case involved a former navy Commander, AK Srivastava, who was granted disability pension by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) based on the law laid down by the Supreme Court. The top court had ruled that the benefit of doubt for disability should be given to medical conditions arising during service, unless the disability was pre-existing and a note had been recorded that it could not be detected on entry into service.

The high court bench, comprising Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur, dismissed the writ petition filed by the Navy and MoD on November 12. The court had warned the MoD in October that continuing to challenge orders covered by previous judgments would result in heavy costs for wasting public money and court time.

This is not the first time the MoD has faced penalties for excessive litigation. In 2017, the Supreme Court imposed costs of Rs 1 lakh on the MoD for filing appeals against disability pension granted to soldiers. In 2022, the Supreme Court again expressed its displeasure at the MoD’s actions.

Recently, the Kerala and Punjab and Haryana High Courts have also dismissed several appeals filed by the defence services and the MoD.