Armed Forces Tribunal issues notice to MOD and MoF on
petition seeking pay parity with civil services. It has been contended that the Armed Forces Officers cadre meets all the
attributes attached to the Group ‘A’ organised service.
The Principal Bench of
the Armed Forces Tribunal in New Delhi today issued notice to the Ministry of
Defence and Ministry of Finance on a petition filed by a serving Colonel who
has demanded that the Non-Functional Upgrade (NFU) applicable to IAS officers
and other Group ‘A’ services be extended to armed forces as well.
In his petition, Col Mukul Dev, of the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Branch, has contended that the morale of officers of the Armed Forces has been lowered by the government by non-grant of the NFU and thus lowering the established status of the Armed Forces Officers since independence. He has also argued that the stagnation in the Armed Forces is more acute than the civil services and that the denial is in clear violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution “as the equals since independence have been made unequals”.
Arguing the petition before the Principal Bench, Jyoti Singh, Senior
Counsel, and Colonel Rajiv Manglik (retd), advocates for the petitioner said
that the purpose of grant of NFU is not to equate the monetary benefits or
earnings enjoyed by a particular service but it is granted with the aim to
remove the stagnation due to the acute shortage of vacancies and grant parity
of promotional avenues within the IAS with stipulated lead of two years to the
IAS.
The petitioner has argued that the parity established since independence
and upheld by the pay commissions in succession between the Armed Forces and
the All India Services/ Group ‘A’ services and IPS in particular has been
disturbed and the petitioner has been deprived of the benefits extended to his
counter parts in parity in the civil services.
It has been contended that the Armed Forces Officers cadre meets all the
attributes attached to the Group ‘A’ organised service. The petition says that
the NFU has been denied on the pretext that Military Service Pay (MSP) has been
given to Armed Forces Officers. Citing this as a “gross mis-concept” the
petition says that the grant of NFU is to alleviate the acute stagnation in
service whereas the MSP and other allowances are due to the postings at various
difficult terrain and living conditions.
It has also been pointed out that there are a number of Group ’A
services, who do not meet all the criteria for Group ‘A’ services yet they have
been given deviation from the norms and awarded NFU. The services mentioned are
Indian Legal Service and Indian Trade Service, Indian Statistical service, Indian
Economic service and Central Information service.
What is NFU?
Non Functional Upgrade (NFU) entitles an IAS officer and other Group ‘A’
services officers of the civil services to get the pay scale of the highest
promoted officer of their batch even if he or she is not promoted to the same
rank. This higher grade is given two years after the batch mate achieves the
promotion. The aim of giving NFU is to alleviate the stagnation in the service
due to non-promotion.
Due to the steep pyramid of promotion in Armed Forces hierarchy, a large
number of officers do not make it to the next selection rank. However, NFU has
not been made applicable to Armed Forces. The Delhi High Court in its recent
judgement has held that NFU is also applicable to officers of the central
paramilitary forces.
Well done,sir. MOD has taken us for a ride and this move is in the right direction. Regarding OROP there is one excuse after another to delay matters. After announcing the Bihar poll dates on 5 Sep 15 the Election Commissioner, in answer to a question, stated that notification can be issued during polls as OROP announcement has already been made. And now we have RM giving an excuse stating the opposite!
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