Faced with long delays in the promotion of General rank officers — Major Generals and Lieutenant Generals — the Army has approved a revised promotion policy. While capping annual vacancies at 75% for the next four years, the new policy will also allow Lieutenant Generals with just 18 months of residual service to be considered for posting as Army Commanders instead of the existing 24 months.
“The new promotion policy approved in the last week of December was promulgated based on the recommendations from an expert committee and Army’s own consultations which have been approved by the Defence Ministry. The policy aims to reduce the ages of senior commanders, enhance transparency and stability in the higher ranks and appointments,” an official source told The Hindu .
Over the past several years, the Army has been facing a unique situation where many crucial staff positions have been vacant as eligible officers had not completed their command tenures due to increased officer pool at the mid-level and delays in holding subsequent promotion boards. This had increased the overall age of the officers compared to their counterparts in the Navy and Air Force.
Expert panel advice
To address the issue, the Defence Ministry constituted a two member committee of retired officers mandated to interact with all stakeholders and give their recommendations on revising the promotion policy.
The key measures in the revised policy include a clearly defined roadmap of conducting Selection Boards in a shorter timeframe for a brief period and calculation of vacancies based on actual exits in a year.
“To take care of the immediate situation, a cap of 75% of the annual vacancies will be implemented for a brief period of four years to achieve a reduction of average age bracket by one year,” the source stated.
Other features include consideration of all affected officers as per common yardstick and promotion of different streams as per common seniority. Officials said that the measure reducing the qualifying residual service for Army Commanders from 24 months to 18 months will “provide a larger pool of competent officers.”
Brushing aside speculation that this was done to benefit two officers, several officers said the measures had been recommended in the past by the MoD and Service Chiefs as well. “This was one of the recommendations of the expert committee,” one officer noted.
Officials also clarified that while there would be a slight reduction in vacancies in the short term, it was essential for organisational efficiency and the situation “would stabilise within four years.”
The new policy comes into immediate effect and all selection boards to be held from now on would be as per provisions of the new policy.
