Can’t blame military service for alcoholic behaviour, says AFT

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh bench of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has ruled that excessive drinking has nothing to do with the discharging of military duties and is not attributable to or aggravated by it.

In 2011, havildar Amar Lal, 45, was discharged from the army after a service of 24 years. He had alcohol-dependency syndrome with 11-14 % disability because of consuming excess rum. He approached the AFT requesting another survey medical board for the assessment of his disability.

The bench comprising justice Prakash Krishna and lieutenant general DS Sidhu (retd) commented: “The nature of the disability itself suggests that it is due to the excessive consumption of alcohol and has nothing to do with the discharging of military duties. No useful purpose is going to be served by providing reassessment medical board to the petitioner.”

The medical history of Amar Lal was produced in the court. COMPULSIVE DRINKER

The army told the court that in February 2010, the unit

BINGE DRINKER DISCHARGED HAVILDAR HAD SOUGHT DISABILITY PENSION ON ACCOUNT OF LIQUOR-DEPENDENCY SYNDROME

authorities of the havildar had referred him for psychiatric evaluation, as he binged on rum. It was reported that “he was a compulsive drinker with belowaverage performance”.

It was submitted that since 1996, his rum consumption had increased. “He was evasive about his consumption pattern initially but, later, accepted that he had been consuming at least 200 mililitres rum every day for the past four to five years. He has also started drinking at daytime for the past two to three years to relieve tremulousness (shaking),” the army told the court.

Several rounds of counselling had failed to reform Amar Lal. He had to be moved to hospital after downing 300 to 350-ml rum one night and was absent from duty the next day. The AFT found no merit in his case and dismissed his petition.