Army reduces residual service for Army Commander’s appointment from 24 to 18 months

 In an important move, the Army Headquarters has issued fresh guidelines for promotion boards to be held for the rank of Major General and Lt General and has reduced the residual service for the rank of Army Commander from 24 months to 18 months.

The new promotion policy, accessed by The Indian Express, has been issued by the Military Secretary’s (MS) branch on December 23, 2017. The detailed policy, which lays down the parameters for the No.1 Selection Board for Major Generals and Special Selection Board for Lt Generals, has laid down the residual service clause for Army Commanders at 18 months. The residual service for Corps Commanders has been kept at the existing time frame of three years on the date of empanelment for promotion.

The nomination for heads of arms and services will also take place with residual service of 18 months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy. The new policy has been implemented with immediate effect and a copy has been circulated to all commands of the Army.

The reduction in the number of years of residual service for the Army Commander’s rank will mean that a larger pool of officers will now be available for the appointment of General Officers Commanding-in-Chief of the six operational commands of the Army as well as the Army Training Command.

In another move, the MS branch has also stipulated that the No.1 Selection Board and Special Selection Board for Major Generals and Lt Generals will gradually be tapered to be held only once a year instead of the twice a year schedule that is presently being adhered to.

“No. 1 SB and SSB will be held once a year as per fixed schedule wherein one batch will be considered every year. However, in order to achieve the objective of reducing age profiles in the rank of Major General and Lt General, four such boards for the promotion to the rank of Major General and Lt General will be held in three years after which the system of annual scheduling of promotion boards will be restored,” the policy letter states.

The detailed instructions issued by the MS branch, to ensure fairness and transparency in the promotion system, also includes the manner in which vacancies for the rank of Major General and Lt General will be calculated per year and the gradation system which will be followed in the promotion boards. It also gives out the extra marks which will be allotted for gallantry awards, professional courses etc and the Board Members Assessment which allows them to allot five discretionary marks over and above the marks earned by a candidate.

The residual service clause for Army Commanders had also come in for comment by a panel set up by the previous Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, and which gave its report in June 2016. The panel had recommended a review of the policy of appointing Army Commanders (GOC-in-C) and Corps Commanders on the basis of their ‘residual service’ in the Army which depends more upon the matter of chance and “fortuitous condition of the date of birth” instead of merit and capability.

The panel had asked the government to consider the feasibility of examining the issue in depth where a deserving officer misses the chance to command a Corps or an become the GOC-in-C of a command just because he falls short of the number of years of service that is left with him before retirement.