New CAPF administration law comes into force amid SC challenge

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday brought the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026 into force, converting a fiercely contested statute into the working law for the leadership of India’s largest internal-security formations even as the Supreme Court continues to hear challenges to its validity.

Parliament passed the Act in early April, and the President approved it on April 9, 2026. The law covers Group A general-duty officers in the CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, and SSB. The Government set the enforcement date for October 8. Now, the Centre-drafted rules on recruitment, promotion, deputation, and service conditions are in effect. The law sets aside half of Inspector General posts for Indian Police Service (IPS) officers on deputation, at least 67 per cent of Additional Director General posts for the same group, and all Special Director General and Director General posts for deputation. The Centre also gets rule-making powers that apply even if previous judgments or orders say otherwise, and the Act takes priority over other laws in case of a conflict. The Government says this system aims to bring consistency and clear roles across the five forces that handle border security, protect key sites, and manage counter-insurgency.

Cadre officers see the law differently. Over 3,000 serving Group A officers, including gallantry award winners and women officers, have petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down important parts of the law as unconstitutional. They say Sections 3 and 4 block their path to top positions, which the court had opened for them last year. They believe Parliament has undone a court judgment instead of following it.

One of the main petitioners is a CRPF officer who has received the Shaurya Chakra. The petitioners want the court to declare the disputed sections unconstitutional and to order that higher administrative posts should go to qualified executive cadre officers from within the forces.

The officers want to restore the Supreme Court’s May 23, 2025, decision in Sanjay Prakash versus Union of India. In that ruling, the court said the CAPFs are organised Group A services, ordered a review of the cadre within six months, and told the Centre to reduce IPS deputation up to the Senior Administrative Grade gradually.  The Government’s review petition was dismissed in October 2025. Contempt proceedings began after the MHA reported that 46 IPS officers were still deputed to the five forces after the judgment. A special bench was constituted after a contempt petition disappeared from the cause list, prompting the court to seek an explanation from the Registry and note that too much heat can be generated from a listing dispute.

Further hearings have been fixed later this month and into November, with the Centre and the petitioners still exchanging pleadings. The bench will have to read three things together: the 2025 directions, the cadre-review exercise the Ministry says is under way, and a statute that now writes deputation quotas into law.

For officers who have spent their careers leading companies and battalions, this issue is very real. If a post is reserved for deputation, it cannot be earned through seniority or field service within the force.

The MHA sees these posts as a place where civil-police experience should combine with paramilitary leadership. The notification issued on Wednesday does not resolve this debate. It simply means the debate is now about a law already in effect, awaiting a court decision on whether it will stand.