Supreme Court Hearing: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 5) directed that an Indian Air Force (IAF) man infected with HIV due to transfusion of infected blood at a military hospital in Samba, Jammu and Kashmir in 2002, Rs 18 lakh should be immediately paid as compensation to a former employee.
The apex court, in its decision given on the petition of the retired personnel on September 26 last year, had directed the Indian Air Force to pay him approximately Rs 1.5 crore as compensation. He fell ill during ‘Operation Parakram’, launched after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001, and was admitted to hospital where he had to undergo a unit blood transfusion.
His petition alleging contempt of directions issued by the apex court in its 2023 judgment came up for hearing on Tuesday before a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta.
Apart from ordering that Rs 18 lakh be immediately paid to him, the top court directed that he be provided treatment at the base hospital here and be paid Rs 25,000 for travel and stay expenses for each trip. The bench also directed that for payment of disability pension to the employee, his disability should be considered as 100 percent. He took note of the submissions of an amicus curiae lawyer in the case that there were some issues which needed to be resolved.
Payment instructions given on the basis here
The amicus curiae cited a para of the 2023 judgment which said, ‘As time progresses, the former Air Force personnel will require the assistance of an assistant. Such an assistant will have to be paid approximately Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per month. If an average of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 (ie Rs 12,500) is calculated for twelve years, the total amount will be Rs 18,00,000.’’
The amicus curiae also raised other issues including disability pension, her treatment and travel and living expenses. The bench said, “In the meantime, we direct the respondents to immediately pay Rs 18 lakh to the petitioner….” The bench said that this amount should be deposited in his account. The bench said that the remaining amount, which the defendant has to pay to the person, should be deposited in the registry of the apex court within two weeks.
The bench took note of the arguments of Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikramjit Banerjee that a petition seeking review of the 2023 decision has been filed and the contempt petition should be kept pending its outcome.
‘Then another round of litigation will begin’
On the issue of disability pension, the Court said that as per the ASG, a medical board will assess his disability. The bench said, ‘As far as disability pension is concerned, we find that in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, if we allow it to proceed through the Medical Board, it will trigger another round of litigation. ‘
It said, “In view of the matter, we direct the respondent to consider the disability of the petitioner as 100 per cent and pay the disability pension….” She said that the pension should be paid before the 10th of every month. Should be deposited in his account. The bench said that this deposit will start from March 2024 and fixed the next hearing of the case on July 16.
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