The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has held that lifestyle related disability detected incidentally at the time of retirement cannot be held attributable to military service, especially when there was no past medical record indicating any illness during service.Rejecting the claim for disability pension filed by Major General for primary hypertension and impaired glucose tolerance, the tribunal observed that this was a case of a senior officer who rose to the rank of Major General, took all the due promotions and was then put in low medical category at the fag end of his career when he missed his board for further promotions just before retirement.The medical record of the applicant indicates that he has been found fit and was in category ‘SHAPE-1’ in his previous annual medical boards prior to July 2016. It was only in July 2016 when there was no elevation/promotion possible and the applicant was due to superannuate that the applicant developed these diseases.The bench observed that the applicant contracted the disability almost after 36 years of his service and as per medical records, the graded specialist in his assessment had recorded that he is a high risk individual with smoking history. It is a well-known and proven fact that smoking is one of the many reasons for primary hypertension, impairs glucose tolerance and increases the risk of developing Type-II diabetes.“The applicant is not entitled to the grant of the disability element for which he is himself responsible due to his history of being a chronic smoker. Thus, self-inflicted issue makes a person vulnerable for such disease and becomes a valid and cogent reason for the onset of the primary hypertension, dyslipidemia and impaired glucose tolerance,” the bench Nandita Dubey and administrative member Rasika Chaube ruled.Observing that primary hypertension is fundamentally a constitutional, multifactorial disease linked to aging, genetic predisposition and lifestyle factors which lacks a singular external cause, the bench said that as per the Entitlement Rules and the Guide to Medical Officers, such idiopathic ailments are generally deemed neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service without specific evidence.Crucially, the service records reflect a complete absence of prior medical documentation, treatment history or medical down gradation during the active service period. Furthermore, routine occupational stress is insufficient to establish a causal nexus; the law necessitates evidence of exceptional, documented service-related stressors, which is wholly absent here, the bench said.“Since the condition was diagnosed exclusively upon release, devoid of any documented onset or progression during service, the logical premise for establishing aggravation is also negated. Consequently, being an age-consistent condition without any demonstrable causal link to military duties, the disability cannot be held as attributable to or aggravated by service,” the bench ruled. Attributability normally requires onset during service with continuity, not a one time finding at the time of superannuation.The bench further said that adjudication of disability pension claims must be based on an independent, objective and evidence-based assessment and that timing of onset of disability, especially if it is idiopathic is extremely important to determine attributability.“The presumption regarding the attributability of a disease arising during military service is not absolute, but rather rebuttable in nature. While the law mandates a liberal interpretation and recognises the presumption of sound health at the time of entry into service, these principles do not dispense with the requirement of establishing the statutory conditions governing entitlement. Ultimately, the determination must rest on credible evidence and in accordance with the governing Pension Regulations,” the bench ruled.