Over 100 Indian Army officers move Supreme Court over 'discrimination and injustice' in promotion

More than 100 lieutenant colonels and majors of the Indian Army have taken the legal route and moved the Supreme Court over alleged "discrimination and injustice" with regard to their promotion.

"This act of Army and Union government (discrimination in promotion) has created tremendous injustice to the petitioners and others which is detrimental to the morale of the officers and, in turn, to the defence of the country," they have said in their petition.

The plea of the petitioners, which states that serviced corps along with combat arms would not be deployed in operational areas if equality in promotion was not granted, could be a cause for concern for the Central government and newly-appointed Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman.

The petitioners, led by Lieutenant Colonel PK Choudhary, said serviced corps officers are deployed in operational areas and face challenges that are similar to officers belonging to the combat arms corps. Then why do they remain deprived of promotional opportunities that are available to the combat arms corps, they asked. 

"The action of the Army and the Union government in selectively treating officers of serviced corps as 'operational' for the purpose of deployment in operational areas but 'non-operational' for the purpose of being considered for promotion is violating the fundamental rights of the petitioners and other middle level Army officers," the petition said.

The petitioners were quoted by the Times of India as saying in their plea that the "discrimination and injustice" with regard to promotion of the officers belonging to the serviced corps, who have been carrying out their duty with dedication for over 10-15 years, affected their morale.

The apex court had in February 2016 resolved another petition of the officers of the serviced corps, who complained of inadequate allocation of colonel posts for promotion. It was done with the help of a report by the Ajay Vikram Singh Committee, which was given the responsibility to reduce the age of commanders of battalions and brigades following the Kargil War.

However, the current petitioners did not question the apex court's decision from last year. Instead they said they were challenging the selective treatment of services corps officers as "operational" when needed and then pushing them down to "non-operational" when it came to promotion.

"The petitioners also wish to draw attention of the Supreme Court that the sacrifices of officers of services corps are at par, if not more, with officers of combat arms corps in the Indian Army," they said.

"Officers from all other corps (like Signals) in the Indian Army, who are similarly placed as the petitioners, are being considered as 'operational' for all purposes while officers of services corps have been discriminated arbitrarily despite the fact that there is no difference in deployment and other duties which they are bound by the Army Act to discharge," they added.

The lieutenant colonels and majors have urged the apex court to direct the Central government and the Indian Army "to uphold the law that the combat services are an integral and operational arm of the regular Indian Army and treat combat services at par with the other corps of regular Army".

They said: "In the alternative, the government and Army may be restrained from routinely deploying services corps in any area of operation, save and except in circumstances of exigencies."