Supreme Court orders Army to pay ₹50 lakh to Havaldar dismissed on ground of wrong AIDS diagnosis

The Supreme Court recently ordered the Indian Army to pay ₹50 lakhs as compensation to a Havaldar who was wrongly dismissed from service in 2001 on the strength of an AIDS diagnosis which eventually proved to be false [Satyanand Singh vs Union of India]..A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta added that even the ₹50 lakh compensation would not suffice to make up for the mental agony faced by the Havaldar over the last 23 years since his dismissal."In view of the extreme mental agony thus undergone by the appellant (Havaldar), in not only facing the apathetic attitude of the respondents 2 to 4 (Indian Army, Central government) but in facing the concomitant social stigma and the looming large death scare that accompanied such a discharge from the armed forces, we deem it fit to award a lumpsum compensation of Rs.50,00,000," the Court said. .The Court pulled up the Army for mechanically relying on the incorrect diagnosis to dismiss the Havaldar from service. It also criticised the Army's refusal to pay him disability pension by terming AIDS to be a "self-inflicted" disease. "We have no doubt in our mind that this is a case of wrong diagnosis and false alarm with imperiling consequences for the appellant ... AIDS is not always a self-inflicted disease and there appears to have been no worthy attempt on the part of the respondents to ascertain the root cause of the appellant’s physical distress," the Court's March 20 judgment stated. .The Court went on to comment that this case shed light on the continued discrimination and deep-rooted bias faced by HIV+ individuals."It is no secret that despite the enactment of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017, and the slew of awareness measures taken by Governments in recent times, the stigma and discrimination which lamentably accompanies an HIV+ve diagnosis is still an illness that afflicts the minds of society today. The discriminatory sentiment of deeming persons who are HIV+ve to be unfit for employment, is starkly evident from the way in which the appellant has been responded to and treated by the various authorities," the Court said..The Court was dealing with an appeal filed by a former Havaldar (appellant) who was dismissed from the Indian Army in December 2001, after over eight years of service. The appellant's dismissal was grounded on a medical diagnosis that he suffered from an “AIDS defining illness in the form of neuro-tuberculosis", which the Army said rendered him medically unfit to continue service. The appellant challenged his dismissal from service before the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Although a single-judge initially ruled in the appellant's favour, a division bench of the High Court upheld his dismissal. Later, the Director General Armed Forces Medical Service and the Armed Forces Tribunal also declined to overturn his dismissal order or grant him disability pension. The former Havaldar then approached the Supreme Court for relief by filing an appeal (a second time, as an earlier appeal filed by him was withdrawn to pursue alternative statutory remedies)..On March 20, the Supreme Court concluded that an incorrect procedure was followed to diagnose the appellant. It observed that although the former Havaldar was HIV+, his condition had not developed into the stage of AIDS (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), contrary to the medical diagnosis cited by the Army."The respondents’ submissions, as elaborate as they may be, in defence of the AIDS diagnosis which was used to discharge the appellant from service, are rendered unworthy of acceptance on the face of his existence today, as an asymptomatic HIV+ve individual without the intervention of any anti-retroviral therapy ... in flagrant defiance of the policy assessment, the appellant is reportedly still alive and suffering from no serious ailment," the Court pointed out..The Court proceeded to opine that the Army was grossly careless and negligent in their actions towards the Havaldar.The Court expressed a note of anguish over the loss suffered by the Havaldar in being abruptly dismissed from Army service. It effectively amounted to displacing a soldier who was accustomed to a regimented military lifestyle and thrusting him with little warning into civilian life, the Court said.“The appellant, who was trained to live a disciplined life since the tender age of 19, was unnecessarily and without cogent reason thrust into civilian life with little warning or preparation. The psychological trauma that such displacement can bring about needs no elaboration," the judgment stated..The Court added that due to the cruel passage of time, since the Havaldar was now 50 years old, he cannot unfortunately be reinstated back to service in the Army. Therefore, the Court confined to ordering the army to pay ₹50 lakh to the appellant as compensation for wrongful termination and to cover leave encashment dues, non-reimbursement of medical expenses and the social stigma faced by him. "There could never be an appropriate substitute for such adversity but such financial compensation might act as a balm to soothe the mind and steady the future. Now that we have been informed that the appellant is active and involved in a business of his own, our prayers are with him to lead a long and healthy life," the Court added..Advocate Kawalpreet Kaur appeared for the appellant. Senior Advocate R Balasubramanian led the arguments for the respondents (Union of India, Indian Army). .[Read Judgment]