Soldier's Fall From Double Bunker Bed In Leh Was "Direct Connection" To Disability: MP High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has refused to interfere with an order granting full disability pension to an army soldier who suffered a debilitating back injury after falling from a double bunker bed during his acclimatization period at a high-altitude posting in Leh, holding that the injury had a direct connection with his military service.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Anand Pathak dismissed a writ petition filed by the Union of India challenging an order of the Armed Forces Tribunal's Regional Bench at Jabalpur, which had awarded disability pension at 20 percent, rounded off to 50 percent, for life to former Naik Ram Prasad Rathore.

Rathore was enrolled in the Indian Army on March 10, 2002, entitled to serve a full 22-year term. He was discharged prematurely on October 31, 2019, after completing 17 years and 4 months of service, on being placed in Permanent Low Medical Category "P3 (Permanent)."

According to the case records, Rathore, while serving with his unit deployed in a high-altitude area in Leh, fell from a double bunker bed on the night of March 11, 2018, during acclimatization, sustaining a severe back injury. He was first admitted to 153 General Hospital, Leh, and later shifted to Command Hospital, Chandimandir, where he was diagnosed with PIVD L5/S1. He was placed in a low medical category and, after a Release Medical Board in August 2019, was assessed at 20 percent disability, which the Board held to be neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service.

Rathore had wished to continue serving under low medical category but was denied a sheltered appointment by his Commanding Officer, following which he was discharged. He then approached the Armed Forces Tribunal, which allowed his application and granted him disability pension.

Challenging this before the High Court, counsel for the Union of India, Advocate Piyush Bhatnagar, argued that the Tribunal had erred in treating Rathore as being "in service" when the injury occurred, contending he was still under acclimatization and had fallen due to his own conduct. It was further submitted that Rathore had not reported the incident at the time, and had directly visited the Medical Investigation Room on his own, informing his seniors about the back pain only later.

The High Court, however, was not persuaded. It observed that the fall from the bunker bed, and the resulting injury, found mention both in the medical records and in the proceedings before the Tribunal, and that the Union had failed to place any material suggesting the disability stemmed from a prior, unconnected condition. The bench noted that Rathore's presence at the high-altitude post in Leh, undergoing acclimatization, was itself part of his military duty, and could not be treated as an act arising from personal choice.

Relying on the Supreme Court's rulings in Dharamvir Singh vs. Union of India and Union of India vs. Rajbir Singh, the bench reiterated that once a soldier is discharged on account of medical disability, it must be presumed to have arisen during service and, absent recorded reasons to the contrary by the Medical Board, be attributable to or aggravated by military service.

The Court also upheld the Tribunal's reliance on Regulation 95 of the Pension Regulations for the Army, which deems a soldier discharged in a permanent low medical category, without alternative employment or a sheltered appointment, to have been "invalided out of service." Applying this provision, along with Ministry of Defence policy letters providing for disability pension at 50 percent in cases of medical invalidation, the Tribunal had held Rathore entitled to the enhanced, rounded-off pension for life.

Concurring with this reasoning, the High Court held that the Tribunal had "rightly considered the fact situation" before passing its order, and that the scope for interference through judicial review stood "constricted."

"Resultantly, petition sans merits, is hereby dismissed," the bench ruled, thereby affirming Rathore's entitlement to lifelong disability pension.

Case Title: Union of India and Other and Others v. Ram Prasad Rathore

Date of Order: August 7, 2026

Bench: Acting Chief Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Anand Pathak

Tags: