In a move to address one of the core anomalies of the services with respect to their civil counterparts in the government, the Centre has decided to grant Non-Functional Upgrade (NFU) benefit over which a legal battle has been going on for some time.
“The Defence Ministry has agreed to grant NFU to officers of the armed forces. The government has taken a decision to inform the court in the next hearing that the armed forces will also be given NFU,” an official source said. The matter was listed for February 28 and the hearing could not take place, the source said, and the government is expected to inform the court in the next hearing.
NFU entitles all officers of a batch who are not promoted to draw the salary and grade pay that the seniormost officer of their batch would get after a certain period.
The Sixth Pay Commission had granted NFU to most officers of Organised Group ‘A’ services but not the military. Since then, armed forces had been demanding a one-time notional NFU to ensure parity. However, the Seventh Pay Commission (SPC) gave a mixed verdict on it and the issue was referred to the anomalies committee following strong objection from the three services.
In December 2016, the Principal Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal, New Delhi granted NFU to armed forces personnel in pay and allowances in response to a petition filed by over 160 officers. However, this was challenged by the government in the Supreme Court and a long legal process has been going on since with the government repeatedly seeking adjournments.
Armed forces have raised the concern over the issue as NFU has a bearing on the equivalence and parity of military officers with respect to their civilian counterparts, especially so as the hierarchy in the forces is very steep. Once granted, the biggest beneficiaries of NFU would be officers in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as for the services the first promotion board is from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel with just about 35% or more making the cut.
A morale booster
Lieutenant Colonels who don’t get empanelled to the next rank remain in the same pay bracket as well for almost 18 years and there are a large number due to the steep hierarchy, one official said, adding that NFU would be a morale booster and motivate them. Post implementation, Lieutenant Colonels are likely to get arrears ofup to ₹16 lakh and Colonels around ₹8-10 lakh, the source cited above said.
In the pay matrix of armed forces which differs from that of civil Group A services, Lieutenant Colonels are at 12A, Colonels at 13 and Brigadiers at 13A. However, the civil pay matrix doesn’t have sub-divisions like 13 and 13A, so civil counterparts equate themselves to the highest level in a slab creating functional issues, the source added. This is because armed forces are guided by rank while civil cadres by the pay scale.
Jawans in the Army already have an NFU equivalent called Modified Assured Career Progression. As per this, a Jawan with eight years of service even if doesn’t get promoted gets into the pay bracket of a Naik and a Naik with 16 years of service gets pay parity with a Havildar. Similarly, a Havildar with 24 years of service gets the pay scale of a Naib Subedar, the official explained.
After the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission (SPC) in 2017, the services had on several occasions raised four core concerns which they perceive reduce the status of the armed forces with respect to their civilian counterparts. These include NFU, NFU pay fixation, Military Service Pay (MSP) and common pay matrix for civil and military. Of these, pay matrix from 24 to 40 years and index of rationalisation for Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels have been addressed.
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