No more deputations for Lt Col rank officers
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3
Officers of the rank of lieutenant colonel and equivalent would no longer be eligible to proceed on deputation to other departments, according to the letter sent by the Prime Minister’s Office to the Ministry of Defence.

The letter, concerning increase of pay scales of lieutenant colonels consequent to the report submitted by a committee of secretaries on pay anomalies states that lieutenant colonels on deputation may be placed in the higher Pay Band-4 and given grade pay of Rs 8,000 only when they return from deputation to their parent service.

“While the dispensation in Para (i) above may apply to lieutenant colonels already on deputation, in future no lieutenant colonel may be sent on deputation. Only majors and colonels may be sent on deputation,” the PMO letter states.

Often lieutenant colonels on deputation were employed at the level of a deputy secretary in the Central government, which was lower than their status because of hierarchical mismatch between the military and civilian establishments. This led to service officers working under civilians junior to them. With deputation off-limits, this would now no longer be the case. Further, the practice of mid-level officers proceeding on deputation for personal convenience would also stop.

Depending upon their technical expertise and professional qualifications, each year a number of officers of the level of lieutenant colonel from the three services proceed on deputation to other departments and agencies like the Research and Analysis Wing, National Security Guards, civil aviation, shipping, road transport and certain postings in the paramilitary forces.

While a final decision is still to be taken by the PMO, the contents of the letter have generated controversy and raised several questions and doubts, particularly on what constitutes to be “deputation” in the armed forces.

Sources said under Central government rules, deputation is an inter-se voluntary arrangement between two departments with the consent of the employee concerned. The Supreme Court has also ruled that the concept of deputation is consensual and involves a voluntary decision of the employer to lend the services of his employee and a corresponding acceptance of such services by the borrowing employer. Further there can be no deputation without the consent of the person so deputed.

Considering this, posting of officers to departments like the Assam Rifles, National Cadet Corps, Military Engineering Services and the Border Roads Organisation cannot be considered as deputation as these postings are decided by Army Headquarters without seeking any consent from the officer concerned. Even though the Assam Rifles is not part of the defence ministry, the Delhi High Court has ruled that an officer can be posted there without his consent. Posting to these organisations was done under provisions of the Defence Services Regulations (Para 99) and not under deputation terms, sources said.