THE POST WAR PAY COMMITTEE OF 1946

The first attempt at rationalisation and simplification of the remuneration structure was made by the Post War Committee in 1946. It was given the mandate to produce pay scales related exclusively to Indian conditions, to simplify the pay system and achieve the maximum degree of harmony within each Service and between the three Services. The Government also took a decision that "the future pays of the Armed Forces should be linked with civil pays as determined following the report of the First Central Pay Commission." Based on these parameters and guided by the Post War Pay Code of the British Armed Forces, the Post War Committee recommended a remuneration system based on the following equations:-

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(a) Service officers should broadly receive equal treatment with police officers.

(b) A fully trained infantry soldier with three years service was equated with a semi-skilled worker who in turn was equated with an Able Seaman of the Navy and the juniormost Leading Aircraftman of the Air Force. Whilst fixing the pay however, a higher differential was given to the Naval and Air Force equivalents due to the lack of popularity of these two Services, their higher educational qualification on entry and inherent hardships of life at sea in the Navy.

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Officers. The closest comparator to Defence Services officers was identified as the Police for the simple reason that they both wore a uniform. This relativity had no other logic, especially with regard to job content. It continues till today, much to the detriment of the Service officers pay scales. In establishing this relativity, the PWPC deliberated at length as to what should be the linkage points. It was first agreed that the end of the Lieutenant Commanders scale should not exceed the end of the Senior Time Scale of the Police in which the SP was placed, thereby establishing a linkage between the two. The next link in the Police then was the DIG. The Service representatives sought a linkage of the DIG with the naval rank of Commander. However, it was finally accepted that the DIG should be placed between the naval ranks of Commander and Captain. One of the factors in establishing this linkage was that the three pillars of administration, namely the DIG of a Range, the Commissioner of a Division and the Commander of a Military District (of the rank of colonel) had near identical years of service, were of approximately the same age and required to socially interact with each other. There should therefore, be some relativity in their pay scales.

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On the plea of 'all inclusive' pay and to achieve simplicity, almost all the allowances of officers were withdrawn. No such withdrawal was effected, however, for the Police and the Civil Services. The New Pay Code resulted in considerable reduction in the then existing pay scales of naval officers. Within a year of its implementation, the Government realised that there were inequities and drawbacks in the New Pay Code and sanctioned certain benefits in 1948 and 1950. In practice, the 'all inclusive' concept of pay was found unworkable.

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The Third Pay Commission

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In April 1970, the Government announced the formation of the 3rd Pay Commission and, for the first time, decided to entrust the task of reviewing the pay and allowances of the Armed Forces to a Pay Commission and not to a Departmental Committee. However, there was a major difference between the terms of reference as applicable to the Armed Forces and those applicable to civilians. In the case of the Armed Forces, the Commission was not asked to make recommendations on the conditions of service but take them as given. This difference was prominently highlighted by the Commission in their report. Even on the question of the presentation of the Services case,the Commission was keen that the service personnel also should have the liberty to represent their case directly before them like civilian employees. However, their request to the Ministry of Defence to that effect was turned down on the grounds that the requirement of Armed Forces discipline would not permit such an approach. Thus the three Services could not explain their case directly to the Pay Commission. As a result, many of the anomalies injected by earlier Committees remained uncorrected.

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In their approach to the formulation of Armed Forces pay, the Third Pay Commission adopted the following broad principles for determining remuneration:

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(a) Implementation of the Post War Pay Committee's recommendation that future pay should be linked with civil pay and comparable to those of Class I Central Services and Indian Police Service officers.

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(b) An infantry soldier with three years service to be equated with a worker classified as between semi-skilled and skilled.

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(c) Regain the "all inclusive" character of military pay as recommended by the Post War Pay Committee, which had got diluted over a period of time by the grant by the Government of a number of additional allowances.

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(d) Any element of Service life which was a relatively constant factor for the bulk of the service, should be compensated in the pay itself. Allowances were only to be granted in such cases where the conditions did not have uniform applicability, viz service in field areas, at high altitude or at sea. Special allowances were also recommended for the performance of hazardous duties.

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Officers. The main thrust of the services was to seek parity in pay scales with the IAS. The Third Pay Commission was of the view however that the officer cadre of the Armed Forces was an omnibus group of individuals of varying disciplines, status and job responsibilities. Whilst there would certainly be some categories, though difficult to identify, who could claim parity with the IAS, the 60,000 strong Armed Forces officer cadre could at best be compared with the Class I officers cadre which had a similar disparate composition. Parity with IAS was therefore not accepted and the existing relativities were retained.