Combat support arms to get more officers at top, rules AFT

Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 8

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In a significant judgment that has implications for the entire officer cadre of the Indian Army, the Armed Forces Tribunal has directed the Ministry of Defence to allocate a proportionate number of additional vacancies in the Army’s higher echelons to officers from the combat support arms.

Consequently, these arms would have more officers in the rank of Brigadier and Major General, and possibly Lieutenant General.

According to legal experts, it could also mean a rejig in the number of vacancies allotted to other arms.

“The respondents are directed to allot a proportionate number of additional vacancies in the ranks of Brigadier and Major General out of the 22 Brigadier and 75 Major General vacancies allotted by the government in tune with the AV Singh Committee recommendations, or in addition to these vacancies, to Engineers, Signals and Air Defence corps keeping in view the allocation of 141 vacancies in the rank of Colonel to these arms vide a judgment of the Supreme Court on February 15, 2016,” the Tribunal’s Bench comprising Justice Virender Singh and Lt Gen Philip Campose ruled while disposing a bunch of petitions today.

“The respondents are directed to allot additional vacancies in higher ranks to the said combat support arms prior to the conduct of No 2 (for Brigadier) and No 1 (for Major General) Selection Boards henceforth, starting with 2018 , in respect of the batches which have been/are scheduled to be considered annually in future,” the Bench further said.

Though the issue in question also has implications for vacancies in the rank of Lieutenant General, it was not challenged in the instant petitions and thus the Bench did deliberate upon it.

Various elements of the Army are categorised as ‘combat arms’ that include Infantry, Armoured Corps and Artillery which directly engage the enemy, ‘combat support arms’ like the Engineers, Signals and Army Air Defence that support frontline battlefield operations and the ‘services’ like Army Ordnance Corps, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, Army Medical Corps and Judge Advocate General that are responsible of rear echelon logistic and administrative matters.

Consequent to the implementation of the AV Singh Committee on cadre restructure, the Central Government had in 2009, released additional vacancies in the rank of Colonel, Brigadier, Major General and Lieutenant General.

Bulk of these vacancies was bagged by Infantry and Artillery. Some officers from the combat support arms had challenged this order on grounds of discrimination, contending that additional vacancies of Colonel should be allotted to all arms proportionately and correspondingly applied to higher ranks.

In February 2016, the Supreme Court directed that 141 additional posts of Colonel be allocated to combat support arms. While new posts for Colonels were created, the same was not done for higher ranks.

Pointing out that once 141 vacancies for Colonel were allocated by the combat support arms by the apex court, it would have been logical for the respondents to consider a proportionate number of senior ranks for these arms, the Tribunal observed that it conveys a lack of application of mind on part of the respondents towards dealing with such an important issue affecting the morale and motivation of a significant proportion of officers.