The Armed Forces Tribunal has held that disability benefits cannot be claimed at the fag-end of service for an injury suffered years ago if the same has not been reflected in past annual medical records.A brigadier commissioned in December 1986 retired from service in March 2021 in low medical category. He claimed that he suffered an injury in January 2005 while on routine patrol duty at Lekhapani in Assam during counter-insurgency operations.He, along with three other soldiers, fell into the stream. While he received first aid the others were evacuated to a military hospital. However, the injury was reported to the medical authorities for the first time in April 2018.He claimed that when posted at Sriganganagar in 2018, he fell while attending morning PT and suffered severe injuries in his knee and back. The injuries were held attributable to service conditions He also submitted that the new injuries were on the same parts where he had sustained injuries in 2005, which were re-triggered and resulted in downgrading his medical category.The Army contended that no injury report from 2005 to 2018 is available to substantiate the claim. An injury report was initiated in May 2018 and accordingly, a court of inquiry (COI) was carried. Based on the findings of the COI a re-categorisation medical board held the injury of 2005 as attributable to military service.The findings were overruled by the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Department on the grounds that the injury report and COI were initiated after an inordinate and unexplained delay of more than 13 years at the fag-end of service.Rejecting the disability claim, the Tribunal’s Bench comprising Justice Nandita Dubey and Administrative Member Rasika Chaube held that the OPD treatment taken by the applicant and the documents submitted cannot be taken note of unless and until it reflects in the Annual Medical Record (AME) of the applicant.“Even if the claim of the applicant that the injury sustained by him in 2005 was re-triggered in 2018 is considered to be correct, the claim has not been substantiated from the original Annual Medical Record provided that reveals that he was in SHAPE-1,” the Bench said. “Moreover, the applicant also got on-time promotions and reported his injury for the first time in 2018 at the fag-end of his service,” the Bench added.The Bench observed that as far as the injury sustained in 2018 is concerned, there is neither an injury report nor any COI was held, though these were done in 2018 for the “so-called injury” that the applicant sustained in 2005.“It also casts a doubt on the injury report and the COI held in 2018, based on which the release medical board held the injury as aggravated by military service,” the Bench said. “There is no demonstrable causal or aggravating link between the applicant’s service and the onset or progression of his disability,” the Bench ruled.