The Supreme Court refused to interfere with its earlier order directing the Indian Air Force (IAF) to pay around Rs 1.6 crores as compensation to an officer who contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during a blood transfusion at a military hospital.
A bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Prasanna B Varale held that no case for review was made out and dismissed a review petition lodged by the IAF and the Army in the matter.
The court observed that the judgment and order under review does not suffer from any error or much less apparent error, warranting its reconsideration. It added that no other sufficient ground has been set up for granting the relief claimed in the review petition. Accordingly, the court ruled that the review petition is dismissed.
The top court in its September 2023 judgment had ordered the IAF to pay the amount as compensation for medical negligence. It also criticised the IAF and the Army for their conduct and held them vicariously liable, both jointly and severally. The direction was questioned by the IAF and the army by their review petition, which has now been dismissed.
In January 2023, the top court had asked the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force to respond in the contempt of court case filed by the officer in question, Ashish Chauhan, for not releasing the compensation amount.
The matter before the apex court stemmed from an incident that took place after the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, after which there were heightened tensions at the India-Pakistan border. During the operation Parakram in 2002, the veteran fell sick and was admitted to a military hospital in Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba, where one unit of blood was transfused into his body. He was diagnosed with HIV in 2014.
Subsequently, he requested information regarding the Personal Occurrence Report (POR) related to his hospitalisation in 2002, and his medical case sheet was provided. Later in 2014 and 2015, medical boards were formed, and it was eventually determined that his HIV condition was linked to the blood transfusion.
Following, the veteran was denied an extension of service and was discharged in May 2016. His application for a disability certificate was also denied on the ground that there was no provision for the same. In addition, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) had dismissed the veteran’s plea for Rs 95.31 crore in compensation.
The aforesaid decision was challenged before the Supreme Court, which eventually took a critical view of the superficial attention given to the officer during the blood transfusion.
The court further proceeded to opine that the veteran must be compensated. The IAF and the Army had also been directed to cooperate with future medical treatment and bear the veteran’s travel expenses for bi-monthly checkups.