The Defence Ministry has informed the Delhi High Court that to prevent armed personnel from committing suicide due to work-related stress, the Ministry has incorporated yoga classes besides training for stress management.

Filing an affidavit on a PIL before the bench comprising Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna, the Ministry admitted that work-related stress was high, leading to arguments with seniors and lack of concern shown by superiors to junior's personal problems by denying leave requests.

However, some remedial measures like classes for yoga, stress management and improvement in inter-personal relationship have been taken at the unit level, the affidavit said.

Denying suggestions that the dissatisfaction among personnel was growing due to lacunae in training or selection procedure, the Ministry said 'Army follows a 'System Approach to Training' wherein a continuous refinement in training philosophies, techniques and syllabi are done'.

To prevent cases like officers killing their colleagues or superiors, the directions were given to commanding officers to personally involve in training junior commissioned officers and non commissioned officers in leadership, man-management and stress management, the affidavit also said.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Sunil Kumar seeking direction to government to take appropriate measures to stop the growing number of suicides by military personnel.