The commander will not discharge you: refusal and inaction by the command

What is happening

The usual story is this: the ground for discharge exists — a medical board finding, the end of your contract, the age limit, family circumstances — but the application never arrived anywhere. You are told it was lost, that the personnel officer is on leave, that nobody is being discharged at the moment. Nothing is refused in writing, so formally there is nothing to challenge.

The second variant is a written refusal with no real basis. It says discharge is inexpedient, that the unit needs you, that your file is incomplete although you handed everything in. Sometimes the application is replaced by an attestation or a disciplinary inquiry simply to buy time.

While this pause lasts you keep serving, you lose time you need for payments and pension paperwork, and your health often gets worse. The longer there is no written decision, the harder it becomes to reconstruct the sequence of events. So the first thing we do is turn a verbal refusal into a document.

What the law says

• Article 51 of Federal Law No. 53-FZ of 28 March 1998 on Military Duty and Military Service lists the grounds for discharge, and the Regulation on the Procedure for Military Service obliges the command to consider your application.
• An application is a formal submission by a serviceman. It must be registered in the unit's records and answered in writing; silence is unlawful in itself.
• A medical board finding that you are unfit or of limited fitness is not a recommendation. The command must act on it, identify the ground for discharge and prepare the submission.
• If your contract has expired, you may challenge being kept in service without a new contract or a lawful ground for extension.
• A refusal or inaction by the commander is challenged in the garrison military court under administrative procedure, and Article 219(1) of the Code of Administrative Procedure allows three months from the day you learned of the breach.
• A serviceman pays no court fee in disputes about military service.

What we do

• We go through your situation and identify which ground for discharge genuinely applies and which one would lead to a refusal.
• We prepare the application and a repeat submission so that the fact of filing cannot be denied: through the unit's registry with a receipt stamp, by registered post, through the office of higher command.
• We file submissions with the garrison military prosecutor and the superior commander, which often forces the unit to answer in writing.
• We draft the administrative claim challenging the refusal or the inaction and ask the court to order the command to decide the application.
• We represent you in the garrison military court and on appeal in the district military court, and obtain through the court the documents the unit withholds.
• We follow the judgment through to enforcement, so that the discharge order is actually issued.

What we need from you

• A copy of your military service contract and its expiry date.
• Your copy of the discharge application with the registration stamp, the postal receipt, or any other proof of filing.
• The medical board finding, the certificate of illness and hospital records, where the ground concerns your health.
• Any written answers from the unit and from higher command, including refusals.
• Extracts from orders concerning you: appointment, contract extension, deployments.
• Documents on the family or personal circumstances you rely on.