ECHS Card Name Correction for Ex-Servicemen in Uttarakhand

The Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme gives medical care to retired defence personnel and their dependents, through its own polyclinics and through hospitals on its panel.

• Each beneficiary, the ex-serviceman and each dependent, has a smart card of his or her own.
• The card is applied for online, on the scheme's card portal.
• The card is shown at the polyclinic, and the hospital checks it before treatment on the scheme's account.
• The scheme is run through regional centres and station headquarters. There are polyclinics across Uttarakhand, and a parent polyclinic is chosen in the application.

For a family in the hills, the card is what stands between an elderly parent and a hospital bill. A name on it that a hospital desk will not accept is a serious matter.

The scheme's published answers to common questions deal with this directly. Where the details on a card, such as the name or the date of birth, are incorrect, the beneficiary is told to sign in to the card portal with his or her own credentials and select the change of data option. An application opens with the existing details already filled in.

• The correction is made by a fresh online application, not by a letter.
• Veterans' guides add that the existing card is first blocked on the portal with "change in data" given as the reason, and that this can be done only after the card has been handed over.
• Supporting papers are uploaded as for a new card, and the application is verified again.
• A fee for the new card is paid online, as the portal shows.

The portal's menus are revised from time to time. Read the current instructions on the portal when you sign in, or ask the card section at your station headquarters or polyclinic.

Notice that the card portal settles only the first row by itself. Every other row passes through the record office.

Where the record is the wrong paper, no amount of trying on the card portal will help. The record office will keep returning the application.

1. Find your record office. It is the records of your regiment, corps or service, named on the discharge book and the pension order.
2. Go to the district's soldier welfare office. It helps ex-servicemen prepare and forward such applications, free.
3. Apply for the correction, stating the name as recorded and as it should read, with the pension order, the discharge book and the identity papers of the person concerned.
4. Give a declaration that both names are one and the same person, with proof of marriage for a wife.
5. Supply what else is asked. For names that are far apart, guides report record offices asking for newspaper notices, and sometimes a Gazette notification.
6. Wait for the amended record, and the corrigendum to the pension order that follows.
7. Then apply on the card portal with the amended papers.

One correction of the record serves the pension, the health card and the canteen card together. See name change in pension and family pension records.

• After an ex-serviceman dies, his widow becomes the primary beneficiary and applies for a card in that capacity.
• The application rests on the family pension order in her name. If her name there is wrong, that is corrected first, through the record office.
• She should carry the death certificate, her identity papers, the pension order and the old cards.
• The district's soldier welfare office will help her with the application. She should not be left to do it alone.

Check the death certificate too. If it gives his name differently from his service papers, that is a further gap to close. See name correction in a death certificate.

Step 1: Ask the record office what it needs, in writing

Through the soldier welfare office. A declaration and identity papers may be enough.

Step 2: Fix the name to be carried, and list the other form as in the service record

Letter by letter, from the discharge book or pension order.

Step 3: Make the affidavit

By the person whose name it is. State both forms, the husband's or father's name and the address. Sign before a notary.

Step 4: Publish the newspaper notice

In a daily local leading newspaper. Keep the original, and spares for the record office.

Step 5: Type the form and sign the undertaking

Two typed copies of the specimen, signed with two witnesses, and the undertaking.

Step 6: Prepare the CD, photographs and certificate

The same text on a CD in MS Word, two self-attested photographs with identity proof, and a certificate that both copies match.

Step 7: Pay the charge on BharatKosh

Commonly Rs 1,100 for an adult, with Rs 250 more for each alias. It is not refunded.

Step 8: Send the file, then give the Gazette to the record office

Send it to the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. Give the published notification to the record office, and apply for the card after the record is amended.

A typical case we handle: an ex-serviceman in Kotdwar had his wife's card application returned three times. His records gave her name as "Munni Devi" and her Aadhaar said "Meena Devi". He had been correcting the application each time and getting the same reply. We told him the portal was not the problem. He applied through the district's soldier welfare office to his record office, which asked for a newspaper notice and a Gazette notification linking the two names. With those, the record was amended, and her card came through on the next application. This is an illustrative example of the type of case we handle, not a named client review.

When you do not need us

For a typing slip on the card, the portal's change of data. For a surname or a spelling, the record office and identity papers, with the soldier welfare office's help. We are useful only where the record office asks for a Gazette notification.

How do I correct the name on my ECHS card?

Sign in to the card portal and use the change of data option.

Why was my wife's ECHS card application rejected?

Often because her name in the service record differs from her Aadhaar.

Who verifies an ECHS card application?

The record office checks it against the service record before the card is printed.

How do I correct my wife's name in my service record after retirement?

Through your record office, usually via the district's soldier welfare office.

Is a gazette needed for an ECHS name correction?

Not for a typing slip. A record office may ask for one where two names are far apart.

Can I use my old card while the new one is pending?

A blocked card cannot be used. Ask the polyclinic what it accepts meanwhile.

What is the annual validation of ECHS dependents?

Veterans' guides report a Central Organisation ECHS circular of 10 June 2025 under which the ex-serviceman uploads eligibility documents for each dependent, now every 15 months instead of 12, from 15 June 2025. The names on those documents should match the dependent's card and record.

What happens if a dependent's validation is not done?

As the same guides report it, the dependent's 64 KB card is disabled and no ECHS treatment can be taken until validation is approved. Check names before you upload, so a mismatch does not hold it up.

Who approves a dependent's validation?

The Officer-in-Charge of the parent polyclinic, who approves the eligibility documents uploaded online before the card's validity is extended.

Are dependents above 80 exempt from validation?

Veterans' guides report that a one-time validation is still needed for white card holders and dependents aged 80 and above, and that a 2022 ECHS letter exempted beneficiaries above 80 holding 64 KB cards from annual validation. Ask your polyclinic how it applies to your family.

Which ECHS card is valid now?

Veterans' guides say only the 64 KB smart card is valid. A corrected card is issued as a 64 KB card through the same portal.

Can I change my parent polyclinic online?

Veterans' guides say the registered polyclinic can be changed online on the ECHS portal. A name correction and a polyclinic change are separate requests.