Punjab and Haryana High Court orders military to use advanced techniques for genetic disorder diagnosis

Ruling that genetic medical disorders are deemed to be attributable to military service if there was no record of such at the time of enrolment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has suggested that the Army use advanced techniques to determine the cause and time of onset of the disease.

The high court observed that if, at the time of enlistment, the medical board did not note any pre-existing disease that would have prevented the individual from joining the Army, then any subsequent manifestation of that disease should be presumed to be a result of military service, unless proven otherwise by the authorities.

While refusing benefits to soldier on the grounds that the disease was genetic, it also did cast an onerous duty upon the medical board to engage itself in the endeavour of unearthing by employing cutting-edge techniques, such as blockchain genetic causal connection methods, which would reveal whether the onset of the disease onto the army personnel was sourced from antecedental genetic family history, the bench of Justices Sureshwar Thakur and Sudeepti Sharma said in their order of October 23.

A soldier was diagnosed with severe depressive episode and diabetes mellitus, and upon discharge, his disability was assessed at 50 per cent. However, the authorities determined that these conditions were neither caused nor exacerbated by his military service, leading to the rejection of his disability benefits claim in 2020.

He moved the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which granted him disability benefits, but the order was challenged by the government before the high court, on grounds that not only was his disability genetically linked but developed while serving in peace area.

Upholding the AFT order, the high court observed that no evidence has been produced by the government to support its contentions, and no credence can be assigned to ill-informed reasons.

The high court further held that the relevant regulations do not explicitly state that the onset of disease in peace area cannot be attributed to military service. In fact, the absence of such a provision suggests that medical disorders can indeed be attributed to military service, regardless of whether they manifest in peace or combat zones.