The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to clarify whether it had approved the alleged divisive policy introduced by the Army in 2009 to corner most vacancies in the rank of Colonel and above in favour of Artillery and Infantry Divisions. The question became relevant as the apex court, examining the validity of the policy struck down by the Armed Forces Tribunal, stumbled on the fact that not once did the Ministry of Defence (MoD), on affidavit, approve the switch made by Army to fill about 1,484 Colonel vacancies under the new policy of 2009 as against the earlier policy to appoint on “pro-rata basis” giving fair representation to combat, non-combat and service arms of the Army based on their strength in the force.
The shift was part of a Command Exit model recommended by former Defence Secretary Ajay Vikram Singh Committee in 2008 in order to recruit young Colonels from the Infantry and Artillery divisions. Dealing with the Centre’s appeal against the AFT order of March 2, the Bench of Justices TS Thakur and R Banumathi said, “Where it affects the rights of so many officers, you have to make it clear. You must make a responsible statement on affidavit whether you had approved of the Command Exit model.”
The court gave the MoD a week’s time to state whether it accepted the AV Singh Committee report and in particular, the Command Exit model. It asked the Defence Secretary or any officer nominated by him to inform whether this model was implemented in filling future vacancies and if not, whether any objection was raised or the government acquiesced to Army Headquarters’ decisions.
In passing the order, the bench cited the AFT order which said that in December 2004, about 750 vacancies in the rank of Colonel were filled on pro rata basis. Four years later, pro rata was given a go by and out of 734 vacancies, a large chunk was cornered by infantry (441) and artillery (186). The other eight arms got just 59 vacancies. This led the Tribunal to observe that the new policy was a “malicious act of reverse engineering” to discriminate between services within the force.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh told the court that the Centre had approved the AVS Committee report and it reflected in the common affidavit filed before Tribunal. He submitted that the new policy favoured combat and non-combat units. The matter is expected to come up on April 29.