New ER-2023 rules strip veterans of disability pensions, forcing them into legal battles and financial hardship, eroding trust in the Defence Ministry.
Veterans protest ER-2023 rules that reclassify disabilities, slashing pensions and sparking widespread legal battles across India.
When the Defence Ministry notified the Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pensionary Awards, 2023 in September 2023, it claimed to bring clarity and curb misuse. Nearly two years later, the consequences are plain: the rules have left thousands of veterans stripped of support and dignity. What was presented as reform has, in practice, become a blunt instrument to deny those who served the very benefits they were promised.
The most damaging change is the shift of the burden onto the soldier. Under earlier regulations, ailments arising during service—hypertension after years in counter-insurgency, joint disease from mountain marches, or hearing loss from artillery—were reasonably presumed to be aggravated by the job. ER-2023 now demands hard proof that few veterans can produce years after the fact. Unless the injury is tied to “combat or combat-like situations” with robust evidence, the default response is denial. By reclassifying stress-related conditions as “lifestyle diseases,” the Defence Ministry has effectively written off the wear and tear of soldiering as irrelevant.
The financial fallout is just as stark. Under the old framework, a mid-career soldier invalided out with a 50% disability could expect around ₹30,000 a month. Under ER-2023, the same condition may be treated as non-attributable, slashing the payout or converting it into a one-time lump sum. Families that relied on steady support now face halved incomes and mounting medical bills. This is not tightening of policy—it is deprivation dressed up as reform.
Adding insult to injury, the Defence Ministry has become an adversary in court. Since late 2023, the Armed Forces Tribunal has been flooded with petitions from veterans whose claims were rejected or downgraded. Instead of heeding tribunal orders, the ministry has appealed almost every case, turning routine pensions into endless legal battles. In July 2025, as widely reported, the Delhi High Court had to dismiss hundreds of such appeals, admonishing the ministry for wasting judicial time and refusing to acknowledge legitimate claims. The message from the courts has been clear: disability pensions are earned rights, not discretionary charity.
The human cost is corrosive. Soldiers invalided in their forties, already struggling to transition into civilian life, are left fighting their own government for recognition. PTSD sufferers must prove that their trauma is “service-connected.” Men with cardiac disease are told it is age, not years of hostile postings, that felled them. Families lose income, dignity and faith in institutions.
This is more than a pension dispute—it is a breach of trust. India lauds its soldiers in speeches and parades, yet in practice the state is clawing back the very benefits that underpin the social contract of military service. Saving a few hundred crores by denying veterans what is rightfully theirs may please accountants, but it shreds morale in the ranks and sends a chilling signal to those considering a career in uniform.
The government’s rationale—preventing misuse—is a fig leaf. No doubt some claims in the past may have been exaggerated. But punishing thousands of genuine cases for the sake of a few is neither justice nor prudence. Other democracies presume service connection in doubtful cases, recognising that the nature of military life carries unavoidable health costs. India has chosen the opposite path, treating its veterans as suspects rather than as men and women who bore the weight of national security.
Two years on, ER-2023 has not delivered fairness or consistency; it has delivered distrust, litigation and despair. The way forward is not complicated. Reinstate the principle of presumption in favour of service, restore broad-banding for those invalided out, and stop classifying service-related stress and disease as lifestyle choices. Above all, stop dragging veterans through years of court cases to claim what is already theirs.
A country that treats its veterans as liabilities undermines its own armed forces. India cannot afford such short-sightedness, especially with tensions simmering on its borders. If the Defence Ministry does not revisit ER-2023, the damage will go beyond pensions. It will corrode faith in the very institution that binds the soldier to the state.
Veterans are not asking for favours. They are demanding the dignity that comes from a promise kept. By reclassifying disability, the Defence Ministry must not reclassify its heroes.
(Aritra Banerjee is a Defence, Foreign Affairs & Aerospace journalist. He has been covering ex-servicemen’s welfare, disability, and veterans’ issues since the beginning of his media career. He is also co-author of The Indian Navy @75: Reminiscing the Voyage.)
