The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday allowed special appeal filed by the Central Government challenging disability compensation under Central Civil Services Rules, 1939 to its employee on the accident met off duty and not being “Homebound”.
The appellant has challenged the judgement passed by Single judge allowing the writ petition by which the order passed by Central Government in terms of which the claim of the petitioner for disability compensation under the Central Civil Services (Extraordinary Pension) Rules, 1939 stood rejected, have been set aside, and a direction has been issued to the respondents to compute the benefits payable to the petitioner under the CCS (EOP) Rules, 1939 and to pay the same within a stipulated time period.
The appeal was preferred on the ground that the petitioner was not entitled to the benefit of disability compensation in as much as he was not ‘homebound’ when he met with the accident, as he had already reached home and the accident occurred when he was engaged in his personal work and as such there was no causal connection/attributability between the disablement and government service, and the interpretation given by the Single Judge to Rule 3A(1)(a) of the CCS (EOP) Rules, 1939, is erroneous and the judgment and order is legally unsustainable.
Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner was on leave from 14th December, 1998 to 16th December, 1998, when he met with an accident, which occurred on 14th December, 1998 while he was going to his house by a scooter which was hit from the opposite side by a three-wheeler. The claim raised by him for disability pension under the CCS (EOP) Rules, 1939 was based on a contention that the leave being for very short period, he would be considered to be on duty and would be entitled for the disability pension. The claim raised by the petitioner for disability pension under the CCS (EOP) Rules, 1939, was rejected by the Commandant of the Battalion.
Thereafter, the petitioner submitted a representation before the Deputy Inspector General, CRPF, Rampur raising a plea that the accident having occurred during the period of casual leave the same would be considered to be as a period on duty as per the relevant rules and accordingly the accident would be deemed to be while on government duty and accordingly he was entitled to disability pension. The claim sought to be raised by the petitioner was rejected by the Deputy Inspector General, CRPF.
Then the petitioner submitted a representation before the Deputy Inspector General, CRPF, Rampur raising a plea that the accident having occurred during the period of casual leave the same would be considered to be as a period on duty as per the relevant rules and accordingly the accident would be deemed to be while on government duty and accordingly he was entitled to disability pension. The claim sought to be raised by the petitioner was rejected by the Deputy Inspector General, CRPF by means of an order dated 5th April, 2004 stating therein that there was no provision under the relevant rules that the period spent on casual leave would be treated to be as that on duty and therefore the accident having occurred when the petitioner was on casual leave the same could not have been treated to be an accident while on duty.
The Rule 3A of the Central Civil Services Rule, 1939 reads as:-
“Disablement/ Death –
(1)(a) Disablement shall be accepted as due to Government service, provided that it is certified that it is due to wound, injury or disease which,
(i) is attributable to Government service, or
(ii) Existed before or arose during Government service and has been and remains aggravated thereby.
(b) Death shall be accepted as due to Government service provided it is certified that it was due to or hastened by,
(i) A wound, injury or disease which was attributable to Government service, or
(ii) The aggravation by Government service of a wound, injury or disease which existed before or arose during Government service.
(2) There shall be a causal connection between,
(a) Disablement and Government service; and
(b) Death and Government service, for attributability or aggravation to be conceded. Guidelines in this regard are given in the Appendix which shall be treated as part and parcel of these Rules.“
The appeal was heard by the division bench comprising of Justice Biswanath Somadder & Justice Y. K. Srivastava who observed that the grant of disability pension under the CCS (EOP) Rules, 1939 is admissible in a case where government servant is boarded out of government service on account of his disablement due to wound, injury or disease. In terms of Rule 3A(1)(a), disablement shall be accepted as due to government service, provided it is certified that it was due to wound, injury or disease which is attributable to government service, or existed before or arose during government service and has been and remains aggravated thereby. Further, subrule (2) of Rule 3A provides that there has to be a causal connection between disablement and Government service for attributability to be conceded.
The bench observed that the accident having occurred on a day when the petitioner was availing leave, howsoever liberally we may attempt to construe the provisions under the CCS (EOP) Rules, 1939, the petitioner would not by any stretch be held to be ‘on duty’ leading to a causal connection between disablement and government service for attributability to be conceded in any manner.
The Court while allowing the appeal observed that as per the petitioner’s case there is no assertion that the accident occurred while he was on his journey back home from his duty station, and the sole basis of the claim being founded on the stand that the leave being for a short period the petitioner may be considered ‘on duty’, the accident can in no manner be held to be attributable to Government service as per the provisions of the CCS (EOP) Rules, 1939, so as to sustain a claim for disability pension in terms thereof.
Thus, the judgement of single judge was set aside and the appeal of Government was allowed thereby rejecting the claim of petitioner.
-India Legal Bureau