‘Like straw fire’: Quoting Nepali proverb, Sikkim High Court quashes wife’s cruelty case

The Orissa High Court has reinstated disability pension benefits for a former Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who was retired due to schizophrenia. The court dismissed a 2011 decision rejecting his claim, stating that merely because schizophrenia was not classified as a disease, it could not be used to deny his pension.

Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy ruled that since the petitioner was allowed to retire on medical grounds in 1999 due to his schizophrenia, he should be entitled to the 50 percent disability pension he was approved for. The authorities had previously argued that schizophrenia was not a classified disease under the Extraordinary Disability Pension (EOP) rules and that he did not meet the required 10 years of service.

However, the court noted that the petitioner had already been permitted to retire on that basis and that the original retirement order had never been modified or recalled. Consequently, the rejection of his pension claim was deemed unsustainable under the law.