The Government has agreed to create 140 additional posts of Colonels in a bid to defuse the unrest within the Army over a 2009 promotion policy for officers of the rank. Since the implementation of the policy, the Artillery and Infantry wings have been cornering the lion’s share of the promotions to the posts of Colonels.
The Centre’s decision has come at a time when both the Government and the Army are facing heat from the Supreme Court (SC) for promoting Colonels under the Command Exit Model (CEM) and not according to the previous practice of distributing the posts on a pro-rata basis across all wings.
The matter came to the apex court after the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) struck down the policy as arbitrary on a petition filed by 34 lieutenant-Colonels drawn from Ordinance, Services, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and Support Arms wings.
Suggesting a way out of the present dispute, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh along with advocate R Balasubramaniam informed a Bench of Justices TS Thakur and Kurian Joseph that by creating additional posts, the prospective Colonels from the Support Arms wing of the Army could be adjusted. This would be possible if the tenure of their command is brought down to three years from the existing four-year term. Under this arrangement, the Selection Board will appoint 140 additional Colonels drawn from the Support Arms wing.
The Army has three main wings - Arms, Support Arms and Services. In 2009, when 734 posts of Colonel were filled, the Arms wing (Infantry and Artillery) cornered over 600 posts.
This was not the position when over 750 posts were filled between 2005 and 2008. All wings got equal representation as Colonels on a pro-rata basis. The Army claimed that CEM was part of the Army’s requirement to create a young brigade by allowing Commanding Officers to exit Command early. This was based on a report given by former bureaucrat AV Singh soon after the Kargil War.
On the behest of the Supreme Court to settle the issue in-house, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar reportedly met the aggrieved officers and worked out a middle path. Since the AV Singh Committee did not envisage addition of posts for Services wing, its officers will not be included in the current addition of 140 Commanding Officers’ posts, ASG Singh informed.
Satisfied by the proposal, the Bench said: “We see it is a fair suggestion to create 140 additional vacancies which is a large number so as to iron out the rough edges.” It asked ASG Singh to present the entire scheme by November 19 giving finer details of how it is to work out on the ground by fixing an outer limit for Commanding Officers, who wish to continue in their command beyond three years.
The Bench, however, took note that some of the 34 petitioners belong to the Services wing (Ordinance, Services, and EME) and they may miss the benefit of promotion despite the creation of 140 additional posts.
“What is the use of increasing vacancies if they (petitioners) cannot be benefittedIJ If you (Centre) accept distributing posts by pro-rata was a mistake, that mistake should not be the basis for denying them (petitioners) benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled,” it said.