The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Army to create 141 additional posts of Colonel to be allocated to “Combat Support” stream for being utilised by appointing officers who are eligible for promotions against the same as in the year 2009 over a period of 5 years till 2014.
A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Kurian Joseph passed this order on an appeal against the Army Tribunal’s order quashing the January 2009 promotion policy which allowed promotion as Colonels to the combat units — infantry, mechanised infantry and the armoured corps and not to those in Engineering, Signals and Artillery units.
The bench, while partly allowing the appeal, said, “In the absence of any perversity, unreasonableness or unfairness in the policy so introduced, we see no reason to allow the argument based on legitimate expectation to unsettle or undo the policy which is otherwise laudable and intended to render the Indian Army more efficient and better equipped for combat situations.”
The bench said, “It also is not a case where no reasonable person could have taken the decision which the government have taken as regards the need for lowering the age profile of the Commanding Officers or their exit after 2-1/2 to 3 years to occupy positions which the government have created for the officers to occupy till they are considered for promotion to the next higher rank.”
The bench accepted the contention that those who were in the forefront of the battlefield and faced the bullets were entitled to better promotional avenues. Rejecting the Centre’s argument that it was only implementing the Ajay Vikram Singh committee’s report, they submitted that the report is just a charade to discriminate against non-infantry personnel.
The bench rejected the submission that Army should be treated as a single cadre and all promotions should be distributed equitably. Infantry fights from bunkers, while support services personnel don’t have such protection. Support services fought wars marching shoulder-to-shoulder with the infantry and never refused to cross the border, citing lesser promotional opportunities.
Army needs to fight as one cohesive unit. It was argued that the real purpose behind the model is to enable infantry to capture all higher positions. Infantry can’t be a separate cadre. It was pointed out by the affected officers that under the 2004 policy, 750 posts were available for promotion to all the 11 units on pro rata basis. But in the 2009 policy, the number of posts was reduced to provide for promotion only to combat officers.
