Gurkha veterans have lost a High Court test case battle with the Ministry of Defence over pensions.
Soldiers who retired before July 1, 1997 accused the MoD of discriminating against them on the grounds of nationality and age.
Pension rules were altered in 2007 to give Gurkha soldiers equal pension rights with their UK counterparts.
They were handed the option of transferring into the UK Armed Forces pension schemes, leading to marked improvements in their retirement income.
But the British Gurkha Welfare Society said about 25,000 men who retired before July 1997 were denied the opportunity to transfer, leaving them with only a third of the income of UK-based soldiers.
Their pension scheme paid substantially lower benefits based on the cost of living in Nepal, the homeland to which veterans traditionally retired.
Lawyers for the veterans argued in the High Court that the failure to give all retired Gurkhas, who now had the right to settle in the UK, equal pension rights amounted to unlawful discrimination on grounds of nationality and age, in breach of the Human Rights Act and EU discrimination laws.
Mr Justice Burnett, sitting in London, spoke of the "high regard" the British people had for the Brigade of Gurkhas and their admiration for the Gurkhas as individuals.
But he rejected all the grounds of challenge and ruled the MoD had not acted unlawfully.
