The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has granted relief to a woman Lieutenant Colonel, allowing her a disability pension after her disability percentage was reduced through overwriting.Lieutenant Colonel Himani Pant (retd), a resident of Ambala Cantonment, was commissioned in the Army Education Corps in 1998. In October 2010, she developed “osteoarthritis in both knee joints”. It was diagnosed when she was serving in the Army at Shillong. Her medical category was permanently downgraded. She retired on April 9, 2023, after 25 years of service.The Release Medical Board assessed the disability of “Osteoarthritis both knees” to be 30 per cent for life and aggravated by military service. However, the Commandant of the Military Hospital reduced the extent of the disability to 15 per cent by overwriting it, and her claim for a disability pension was rejected.She approached the Chandigarh bench of the AFT, Chandigarh (Panchkula), in 2023.Counsel for Lieutenant Colonel Pant, Rajesh Sehgal, submitted before the AFT that the Release Medical Board was headed by the officiating Commandant of the Military Hospital, while the Approving Authority was the Major General (Medical) of the Uttar Bharat Area, and the Confirming Authority was the Major General (Medical) of the Command. He added that the Commandant of the Medical Hospital could not have reviewed the extent of disability, and thus the rejection of the officer’s claim for disability pension was illegal.Counsel for the Army authorities, on the other hand, maintained that the Commandant of the Military Hospital was entitled to review the extent of disability and that the woman officer’s claim was rightly rejected.The bench of Justice Sudhir Mittal (retd) and Lt Gen Ravendra Pal Singh (retd) observed that a perusal of the copy of the Release Medical Board showed that the President of the Medical Board was the Officiating Commandant of the Military Hospital. “The assessment of the extent of disability by the Medical Board was 30 per cent and was typed. The same has been scored out in hand by the Commandant of the Military Hospital, and the extent has been assessed to be 15 per cent,” it added.The AFT order reasoned that the Approving Authority was the Major General (Medical) of the Uttar Bharat Area, and the Confirming Authority was the Major General (Medical) of the Command; the Commandant of the Military Hospital had no jurisdiction to interfere in the finding. “He was nowhere in the chain of acceptance and approval,” the order added.The bench further said that when the Categorization Medical Board, as well as the Release Medical Board, had assessed the extent of disability at 30 per cent, changing it to 15 per cent by the Commandant of the Military Hospital was not only without jurisdiction but also illegal. It added that a subsequent medical board must give reasons if it disagrees with the findings of an earlier medical board.”On this ground also, the assessment of the extent of disability at 15 percent is illegal. The same is quashed,” said the order.On the question of disability being aggravated by the military service, the order said, “The Release Medical Board has found that the disability was aggravated by military service and the competent authority had no jurisdiction to review the same. Thus, it could not have held that the disability was neither attributable to nor aggravated by the military service.” The AFT’s observation was based on the Supreme Court’s judgment in Ex-Sapper Mohinder Singh vs Union of India and others, decided in 1993.While allowing the Lieutenant Colonel’s application for disability pension, the AFT rounded up her disability percentage from 30 per cent to 50 per cent, effective April 1, 2023, for life.