Govt notifies eligibility for appointment of Chief of Defence Staff

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued three notifications on Tuesday, specifying the professional qualifications and age limitations for military generals to be eligible for appointment as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Indian armed forces.

India’s military has had just one CDS, or tri-service chief: General Bipin Rawat, who was CDS from January 2020 until his death in a helicopter crash in December 2021. The post has since lain vacant.

Now, the MoD has issued three separate notifications: One each for the army, navy and the Indian Air Force (IAF). Officers from all three services are required to meet broadly the same two qualifications.

First, an officer must be either serving, or retired, in the rank of general or lieutenant general. Second, his age should be below 62 years on the date of his appointment. The central government has reserved the right to extend the tenure of the CDS to a maximum of 65 years.

“The Central Government may, if considered necessary, in public interest, so to do, appoint as Chief of Defence Staff, an officer who is serving as Lieutenant General or General or an officer who has retired in the rank of Lieutenant General or General but has not attained the age of sixty-two years on the date of his appointment: Provided that the Central Government may, if considered necessary, in public interest, so to do, extend the service of the Chief of Defence Staff for such period as it may deem necessary subject to a maximum age of sixty-five years,” states the government notification dated June 6, 2022.

Two additional notifications spell out similar eligibility conditions for the navy and the IAF, respectively.

Assuming the CDS appointment is filled on July 1, 2022, eligibility would be restricted to all serving army generals and lieutenant generals, navy admirals and vice admirals, and IAF air chief marshals and air marshals; all of whom are below 62 years of age, since officers at these ranks retire at the age of 60.

In addition, officers of these ranks who retired on or after June 30, 2020 will be eligible for appointment as CDS.

Amongst senior military officers, the guessing games have begun over what choices the government will make in appointing the next CDS. Most believe that the next CDS would be appointed from the army, not only because it is the biggest and most influential service but also because General Rawat’s untimely death left the army CDS’s term unfinished.

It is also unlikely that all serving generals, admirals and air marshals will be considered for the post of CDS. Instead, only army, navy and air force commanders-in-chief will be eligible.

Those conditions open the doors to the serving army chief, General Manoj Pande, his vice chief, Lt Gen B S Raju, and seven lieutenant generals commanding the seven army theatres.

Also eligible for promotion to CDS are six army commanders-in-chief, who retired on or after July 1, 2020; and who will, therefore, be under 62 years of age at the end of the month.

The 14 serving and retired army commanders eligible for CDS, therefore, are: Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi and Lt Gen Yogesh Joshi from Northern Command; Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita and and Lt Gen Anil Chauhan from Eastern Command; Lt Gen Yogendra Dimri from Central Command; Lt Gen Alok Kler and Lt Gen AS Bhinder from South Western Command; Lt Gen J S Nain and Lt Gen Chandi Prasad Mohanty from Southern Command; Lt Gen Nav Kumar Khanduri and Lt Gen RP Singh from Western Command; and Lt Gen SS Mahal and Lt Gen R Shukla from the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) and Lt Gen Ajai Singh from the Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC). In addition, former vice chief, Lt Gen Satinder Saini, is also eligible.

However, given the current central government’s penchant for surprise announcements, nobody is ruling out the appointment of a surprise candidate.

Criteria for consideration
 

• First, an officer must be either serving, or retired, in the rank of general or lieutenant general
• Second, he should be below 62 years on the date of his appointment. The central government has reserved the right to extend the CDS's tenure to a maximum of 65 years