New Delhi: The Defence Ministry has withdrawn its controversial order which suggested that ex-servicemen, who challenge the government on pension and disability matters, will have to fight their legal battles all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Defence Minister A K Antony`s conveyed his Ministry`s stand on the issue while replying to a letter written by Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
"In case of concerns expressed as well as procedural complications, it has been decided to revert to status quo ante and withdraw the earlier instructions," Antony said in the letter to the MP from Karnataka.
The letter was issued by the Department of Exservicemen Welfare on January 2 containing instructions for processing of certain categories of court cases for appeal.
Antony told Chandrasekhar that the department`s intention was only to simplify the process of decision-making regarding filing of appeals in identified categories of cases, in order to avoid delays.
According to the Ministry note, the department had earlier run each case past its law officers to decide whether to appeal against adverse verdicts.
It stated that henceforth, the department will appeal automatically, since referring to legal advisors and processing each case on its merits increase paper work at various levels and delay the process of filing of appeal.
The six categories of litigation in the memo cover disability benefits and certain categories of pensions, which involve a high percentage of ex-servicemen litigation.=
The memo directed the military to "straight away process such cases for appeal... Without routing such cases to the Ministry and asked it to refer only those cases where there is a difference of opinion".
