New Delhi: Are those who suffer injuries during military training adequately compensated?
The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of difficulties faced by such people and will hear the matter on Monday (August 18).
The matter relates to cadets who get medically discharged from military institutes on account of disabilities suffered during training programmes.
The court registered the case on August 12 and the bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan will be hearing the matter. The Court took cognizance on the basis of a media report that flagged the hardships faced by such cadets who were once part of training at the nation’s top military institutes such as the National Defence Academy (NDA) and Indian Military Academy (IMA).
According to the media report, there are around 500 officer cadets who have been medically discharged from these military institutes since 1985, due to varying degrees of disability incurred during training, and are now staring at mounting medical bills with an ex-gratia monthly payment that’s far short of what they require.
The report states that at the NDA alone, there are around 20 such cadets, who were medically discharged in just five years, between 2021 and July 2025.
It highlighted the plight of these cadets because as per rules, they are not entitled to the status of ex-servicemen (ESM), which would have made them eligible under the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) for free treatment at military facilities and empanelled hospitals, since their disabilities took place during training before they were commissioned as officers.
It has been reported that these officer cadets now receive an ex-gratia payment of up to Rs 40,000 per month, depending on extent of disability. The amount falls far short of basic needs, it has been claimed.
