Supreme Court criticizes government, defense ministry over disabled soldiers' benefits
The Supreme Court has called out the government and the Defense Ministry for making it tough for disabled soldiers to get disability benefits, saying too many are missing out because of "hyper-technical reasons."
Even after being told to stop these strict appeals, the government kept filing them: over 270 have been junked by the court, according to the Supreme Court's order/judgment, while the Raksha Mantri 2015 Report says many disabled soldiers were still denied disability benefits on hyper-technical reasons.
RTI shows few soldiers' appeals succeed
The court found that most appeals from soldiers about their benefits get thrown out: RTI data shows only 142 out of 2,997 first-level appeals succeeded. At higher levels, almost all were declined.
Still, the court stuck with the 2008 Entitlement Rules: disabilities must be linked to service, but it's up to employers to prove otherwise.
So while getting benefits can be tough, some important protections remain in place.