Disability pension denied: not attributable to service

A single line saying your disability is “neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service” is not, on its own, a lawful rejection. The Pension Regulations require that letter to give reasons and to quote the rule under which your claim failed. Where it does not, the finding is open to challenge, first before the appellate committee and then before the Armed Forces Tribunal.

This page is about the armed forces disability pension. A civilian welfare disability pension is a different scheme with a different appeal route: see the civilian disability pension guide.

Read it beside this section. The rule quoted here is Regulation 66 of the Pension Regulations for the Army, Part II, 2008. The Air Force and Navy have their own older regulations on that page; find the equivalent provision in yours.

What the rejection must contain. Regulation 66 says that where the disability is held neither attributable to nor aggravated by military service, the individual “will be informed about his non-entitlement to disability pension … giving reasons and quoting the rule position for the same, with advice to prefer an appeal to the Appellate Committee on First Appeals within 6 months from the date of communication rejecting the claim”. Three things must be on the paper: a reason, a rule, and notice of your appeal right with the six month clock.

Who was supposed to decide. Most veterans are never told this. Under Regulation 66, a re-categorisation, invaliding, release or disability compensation medical board “will not record its opinion on attributability aspect”. It must instead endorse that column of the form with the words “to be decided by the competent authority”. Regulation 65 names who does decide: the Adjutant General for officers of Brigadier rank and above, the Additional Director General Personnel Services for officers up to Colonel, and the Officer-in-Charge of your Record Office for personnel below officer rank. In a disease case there is no injury report, and Regulation 66 says the competent authority decides “on the basis of the complete medical documents and posting profile of the individual”. The board supplies the medicine, not the verdict. And the test is modest: “there should be some causal connection of the death/injury to military service”. Not proof beyond doubt. A causal connection.

Words to look for. The specimen letters in the Regulations use a set form: the disability has “been found to be neither attributable to nor aggravated by Military Service and/or has/have been assessed at less than 20%”, the rule named is Regulation 37 or 53 of Part I, and a six month appeal notice follows.

What a defective rejection looks like. Your letter is thin if it repeats the conclusion with no reason, cites no regulation, omits the appeal right or the six month period, reproduces the board opinion as though the board decided attributability, or does not say which disability failed on which ground. Each defect is a ground of appeal.

Work out which one you are arguing. They go to different places.

The Ministry of Defence letter of 27 December 2023 on rounding off and broad banding says that “the findings of the Medical Board on the extent of disability will be treated as final and binding”. The percentage is the board's call. Whether the disability is connected to your service is not.

Broad banding is the rounding up of your assessed percentage before the disability element is worked out. The same letter replaced the old table with this one.

It also directs that “Medical Boards will indicate actual assessment of disability and will not carry out any rounding off or broad-banding at their level. Any required rounding off or broad-banding will be done by Pension Sanction Authority only.” The orders run from the date of issue, so if you were boarded earlier, the table in force then applies.

On the threshold, Regulation 37 of the Pension Regulations for the Army, Part I, 2008 grants an officer a disability element on normal retirement only “if the degree of disability is accepted at 20% or more”, and Regulation 53 says the same for a person released or discharged on completion of engagement. That is the 20% you keep seeing. But check which board sat on your case. Regulation 66 sends the non-entitlement letter where the disability is assessed below 20% by a Release Medical Board, or at “less than 1% by the Invaliding Medical Board”. If you were invalided out before completing your engagement and your letter uses the 20% figure, ask on what basis. Attributability and percentage are two separate grounds. Answer each.

1. First appeal, within six months. This goes to the Appellate Committee on First Appeals. For Army personnel below officer rank the specimen letter addresses it to the Director PS-4, Adjutant General's Branch, Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence Army, DHQ PO, New Delhi 110011, submitted through your Record Office. Officers route it through their own branch. Attach the defects you noted, the board papers, and anything showing a causal connection.
2. Second appeal. Where the first appeal fails, a further appeal lies to the Ministry of Defence appellate committee on pensions. Ask your Record Office in writing for its address and time limit, and keep the reply.
3. Armed Forces Tribunal. A pension dispute is a service matter. Section 3 clause o of the Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007 defines service matters to include “remuneration including allowances, pension and other retirement benefits”, and section 14 sub-section 2 lets a person aggrieved by an order on any service matter apply to the Tribunal. Section 21 adds that it will not ordinarily admit an application unless you had availed of your remedies under the Army, Navy or Air Force Act: that means a final order rejecting your representation, or six months passing with no final order.
4. Watch the limitation. Section 22 bars an application made more than six months after that final order, though sub-section 2 lets the Tribunal admit a late one “if the Tribunal is satisfied that the applicant had sufficient cause”. File in time anyway.
5. Supreme Court, only with leave. Under section 31 an appeal lies with the leave of the Tribunal, and leave “shall not be granted unless it is certified by the Tribunal that a point of law of general public importance is involved”. Apply to the Tribunal within 30 days of its decision, and if leave is refused, to the Supreme Court within 30 days.

The Tribunal publishes a bench-wise jurisdiction table. Check which bench covers your state before you draft.

This is the part that changes cases. Most veterans appeal against a conclusion they have never seen the working for. An RTI costs a fraction of a lawyer and gets you the papers the Tribunal will read.

Send it to the public information officer of your Record Office if you are below officer rank, or to the records branch that held your file if you were an officer. Send a second by post to the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts Pensions at Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad, for the pension payment order side. Its website was unreachable when this page was checked, so do not rely on a web form there. File the Record Office application at rtionline.gov.in, using our PIO directory and guide to the RTI Act.

Ask for these, by name:

• A certified copy of the Release or Invaliding Medical Board proceedings in my case, every part and every annexure.
• The endorsement in the attributability column of that board form, and the name of the competent authority it went to.
• The court of inquiry proceedings or injury report, and the attributability certificate, if any.
• The note of the competent authority named in Regulation 65 recording the decision on attributability, with the reasons and the rule relied on.
• The full text of the rule under which my claim was rejected, as quoted in the rejection letter dated … .
• The record of the Appellate Committee on First Appeals in my case, with the reasons for rejecting my appeal.
• My service medical documents and posting profile as placed before the competent authority.

Two drafting notes. Ask for records, not opinions: an information officer can refuse a question but not an existing document. And open with your service number, rank, name, Record Office and the date of your rejection letter, or the file will not be found. The RTI drafting tool lays this out and the timeline calculator gives the due date. If the reply is late, evasive or refused, appeal within 30 days using the first appeal builder. A refusal to disclose your own board proceedings is worth putting before the Tribunal.

The Tribunal is not a second medical board. What it has is section 14 sub-section 5: “The Tribunal shall decide both questions of law and facts that may be raised before it.” Under sub-section 4 it holds the powers of a civil court to require “the discovery and production of documents” and to requisition “any public record or document or copy of such record or document from any office”. If the department will not give you the file, the Tribunal can order it produced.

It cannot guarantee an outcome. Some rejections are correct on the merits. What it can test is whether the authority applied its own rules, recorded reasons, and decided attributability itself rather than rubber stamping a medical opinion. Let nobody promise you more for a fee.

Note the year on your papers. The Ministry of Defence notified fresh Entitlement Rules in 2023, and its press brief says “all death and disability reported/ recorded after 21.09.2023 will be governed by ER 2023 and GMO 2023”, while they “do not in any way affect past Pensioners/ Family Pensioners already in receipt of death/ disability compensation/ Family Pension”. Argue from the rules in force on your board date. Current circulars sit on the pension circulars page.

It is a real point on appeal, not on its own a guarantee of the pension. Regulation 66 requires reasons and the rule position, and a letter carrying neither has not complied. Say so in the first paragraph of your appeal, attach the letter, and ask for the competent authority's note. Argue the merits too, in case reasons come later.

Yes. That label is a medical description, not the legal test. Regulation 66 asks whether there is some causal connection to military service, and the competent authority decides that on the whole record, including your posting profile and service conditions. Get the record through RTI first.

Not necessarily, but it gets harder. Send the appeal anyway with a written explanation for the delay and any proof, such as hospital records. Section 22 sub-section 2 of the Armed Forces Tribunal Act separately allows a late application where the Tribunal is satisfied there was sufficient cause. Get any refusal in writing.

The Regulations contemplate rejection letters going to the next of kin, with the same six month appeal right. The entitlement argued may be a family pension, not a disability pension, so the rule quoted differs. The RTI route is identical, and a widow may file in her own name.

You may appear in person, and many veterans do. These cases turn on documents, not advocacy. Gather the board proceedings, the competent authority's note and the reasons first, through RTI. Counsel engaged after that costs less and gets further. Free legal aid is available at your district legal services authority.

• Mark three things on the rejection letter: the reason given, the regulation quoted, and the date you received it.
• Count six months from that date and write the deadline on the letter in pen.
• Put your service number, rank, Record Office and the disabilities named in the board proceedings on one sheet, to reuse on every form.
• Draft one RTI from the list above, and post the appeal if the window is open.

• Pension Regulations for the Army, 2008: Regulations 37 and 53 of Part I, Regulation 66 and Appendix VI of Part II.
• MoD letter No. 17(2)/2017/D(Pen/Policy) dated 27 December 2023 on rounding off and broad banding.
• Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007, sections 3, 14, 21, 22 and 31.
• Armed Forces Tribunal website.
• Disability pension arrears from the due date, on how far back your money runs once you win.
• Using RTI to get pension records for a Tribunal case.
• Fixing a defence pension discrepancy and all practical guides.
• Checking a UDID disability certificate.
• The RTI Playbook.