Army Aviation Corps has authorised 12 Brigadiers but only one Major General and one Lieutenant General

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 12

In a judgement that has implications for appointments to the top posts in the army’s ‘minor corps’, the Armed Forces Tribunal on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Defence to consider a retired Brigadier for promotion to the rank of Major General in the Army Aviation Corps.

The Tribunal’s bench comprising Justice Rajendra Menon and Lt Gen PM Hariz directed the ministry and the army to consider the officer, Brig Sudhir Nagpal for promotion within two months and grant him all consequential benefits including pay and allowances for the period he was kept out of the service.

According to the petition filed by the officer, he had been due for consideration for promotion to the rank of Major General in October 2021 against an existing vacancy at this rank in the Army Aviation Corps, but the same was denied to him on the pretext that said vacancy had already been filled up by a junior batch officer belonging to the General Cadre.

The officer, of the 1987 batch, retired in February 2022 in the rank of Brigadier even as his petition was pending before the Tribunal, which in its interim order had ruled that his retirement would be provisional and subject to final orders passed by it.

After his retirement the ministry released an additional vacancy of Major General to the Aviation Corps but the petitioner was still not considered, instead another junior batch officer was considered, for promotion against said vacancy.

 “A list of arms and services which were scheduled to be considered for promotion by No.1 Selection Board was published in July 2021, but Army Aviation Corps was not included in the list. No reasons were mentioned for excluding this corps in the letter despite the fact that a vacancy for Major General already existed in the corps since June 21, 2022,” Col Indra Sen Singh (retd), counsel for the petitioner said.

The petition mentions that the officer was “informally” informed that Aviation Corps was not considered because another officer of the 1989 batch, had already been considered by the board in May 2020 and promoted in February 2021 against the said vacancy of Major General, that had actually accrued in June 2021.

“It is baffling that if a vacancy in Aviation Corps was indeed going to be available in February 2021 then why was the petitioner, who was already holding the rank of substantive Brigadier and fully eligible, not considered for promotion to Major General in May 2020,” Col Sen averred.

Army Aviation Corps has authorised 12 Brigadiers but only one Major General and one Lieutenant General. Being a minor corps, where the overall strength of officers and men is very less as compared to other arms, it works on a functional requirement where the vacancies are released as per the actual requirement whenever a post falls vacant.

The petitioner also contended that as per policy, general cadre officers are debarred from tenanting corps specific appointments of their parent arm or service, while appointments of Major General in a corps specific stream are tenable only by officers of that specific arm or service.