Can boarded-out cadets be given quota as ex-military personnel, asks Supreme Court
(File Photo)The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will consider what benefits can be provided to officer cadets boarded out from the military on account of disability suffered during training, even if the ex-servicemen tag could not be extended to them. A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan said this after the Centre cited problems in extending the ex-servicemen nomenclature to the outboarded cadets.“Without using the word ex-servicemen, what benefits you can get we will see,” Justice Nagarathna said. The court also asked the government to “reconsider the recommendations made by the Sabharwal Committee in light of the fact that the matter is now taken up by this court in order to ameliorate the condition of the outboarded candidates”. The July 2015 report by a committee headed by Lieutenant General (retd) Mukesh Sabharwal had looked into the issue of the disabled candidates and made some recommendations, including treating them as ex-servicemen and providing disability pension to them. Justice Nagarathna said if the outboarded cadets cannot be treated as ex-servicemen, they can be brought in the category of ex-military personnel and be provided reservation benefits. The court said that “States and UT’s could also consider granting reservation to outboarded cadets in the quota of ex-military personnel…”.Story continues below this ad Justice Nagarathna told the Centre’s counsel, “See the plight of the parents, see the plight of the child. Arm is not there, amputation, wheelchair-bound. Who will look after (them), after the parents go…They were qualified to be in the training. So they are not just an ordinary student…that is why the degree of disappointment is high. We have kept that in mind. That is the only reason why we instituted this – the degree of disappointment… for that person, family, parents, is so high, because the expectation was so high…” The SC had taken suo motu cognizance of the matter following a report in The Indian Express on August 11 last year about how these officer cadets have been battling severe disability with mounting medical bills and little benefits. According to the report, around 500 officer cadets have been medically discharged from top institutes such as the National Defence Academy since 1985 due to varying degrees of disability incurred during training. The court will now hear the matter on September 8.
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