New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a plea for disability pension filed by a former air force employee who said he took part in the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan and had suffered permanent hearing impairment because of his work.

G. Jeyaprakash, 73, also said he had fathered four children who were born deaf and mute.

But the top court recently rejected his plea, mainly on the ground that Jeyaprakash had sought the relief after three decades.

The court's judgment, however, has not yet been uploaded, so details of the reasoning by the two-judge bench were not immediately available.

Jeyaprakash had earlier moved the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in Chennai in 2009, saying he had suffered permanent disability that was "attributable" to the conditions and the nature of the work he did as a radar operator.

The tribunal dismissed his plea in June this year on the ground that Jeyaprakash had sought relief after more than three decades.

Jeyaprakash then approached the top court through advocate Jaideep Singh, claiming that he lost his hearing while being continuously exposed to high power electromagnetic waves while working with the Indian Air Force.

But the tribunal and the top court both took the view that for more than 30 years, the petitioner had not sought relief; hence his case was hopelessly time-barred.

Singh told The Telegraph that the petitioner, a resident of Tamil Nadu's Virudhnagar district, was not fully conversant with the legal position, which led to the delay in seeking remedy.

The lawyer said Jeyaprakash did odd jobs since 1973 and had exchanged correspondences with the authorities between 2000 and 2008, but without any success. It was only in 2009 that he had moved the tribunal, Singh said.

Jeyaprakash said he has been living in abject poverty and all his four children were born deaf and mute.

While two of his sons died in the 1980s, his daughters are alive. His wife suffers from tuberculosis, Jeyaprakash said.

The petitioner said he had enrolled with the IAF in June 1963 as a radar operator and the terms of engagement were nine years of regular service and six years of reserve service.

He claimed he had been awarded with several medals and the authorities had even assessed his behaviour as "exemplary" while he was in service.

Jeyaprakash submitted that he should have been transferred to the reserve establishment on June 17, 1972, after he completed nine years of regular service, according to his terms of engagement.

But he was retained in the regular service even after the 1971 war with Pakistan, Jeyaprakash said.

Later, Jeyaprakash said, he was erroneously discharged from the regular air force service without pension on March 22, 1973, for want of vacancies because of the then government's policy on disbandment of units and reduction of troops.