SC Grants ‘Organised Services’ Status, Early Diwali For CAPF Brass

A bench of Justice A S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, in their judgment dated May 23, ordered that Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) posts, till now reserved for IPS officers on deputation in the CAPFs — particularly up to the rank of Inspector General (IG) — should be “progressively reduced over a period of time, say within an outer limit of two years”.

The judgment has mandated the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) — the authority that controls CAPF cadres — to amend service/recruitment rules, allowing all connected benefits of Organised Group A Services (OGAS) to CAPFs, and cadre review of eligible officers within six months.

As per the Seventh Pay Commission, 20 per cent of posts in the rank of Deputy Inspector General (DIG), 50 per cent of posts in the rank of Inspector General (IG), 75 per cent of posts in the rank of Additional Director General (ADG), and 100 per cent of posts in the rank of Director General (DG) in the CAPFs are currently reserved for IPS officers.

According to CAPF officials, the SC order is going to benefit nearly 13,000 officers of the paramilitary forces.

They said that currently, in cases of officers who join as Assistant Commandants (AC), it takes 25 years to be promoted to the level of Commandant, whereas they should attain the seniority in 13 years.

An officer in the rank of DIG in a CAPF said, it took him 31 years to reach the level, which should otherwise have taken 21 years of service.

The CAPFs comprise the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

On two earlier occasions, both the Delhi High Court in 2015 and the Supreme Court in 2019 had decided that CAPFs come in the category of organised services on the lines of the Indian Foreign Service and the India Revenue Service (IRS), among other Group A services of the Central government.

In 2021, Group A officers of the CAPFs approached the apex court again, seeking Non-Functional Financial Upgradation (NFFU), cadre review, restructuring, and amendment of recruitment rules, to eliminate IPS deputation and allow internal promotions up to SAG.

The court said that the “core of the grievances of the appellants are non-recognition as OGAS, non-grant of NFFU and service stagnation.”

In 2006, as a part of the Sixth Central Pay Commission’s recommendations, the concept of NFFU was introduced to address stagnation among Group A service officers. So, in case of a lack of vacancies, if an officer of an organised service is promoted, the others of that batch will also get financial upgrade, even if they are not given a commensurate post after promotion.

The Centre, on its part, told the court that: “Being an armed force of the Union, the purpose is to keep each of the CAPFs fit for fighting and to ensure coordinated action between the states and the Centre within “the federal framework of our country”, and therefore “deputation of IPS officers is necessary”. But the court said that it cannot be “oblivious of the grievance” expressed by the CAPFs.