SC nod for younger combat officers

The Supreme Court on Monday backed the government’s attempt to lower the age of senior Army officers in combat and combat support cadres, while upholding the 2009 Command-Exit policy.

The policy will create more than 1,600 vacancies in the ranks of colonel “to render the Indian Army more efficient and better equipped for combat situations,” the apex court said.

A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice Kurian Joseph directed the Centre to create 141 additional posts of colonel to accommodate officers of the Combat Arms Support stream and held that the policy, which has a “laudable” objective, cannot be struck down on the ground of being perverse, unreasonable or unfair.

It set aside the Armed Forces Tribunal order, which quashed the policy last year after holding that it violated right to equality by prescribing preferential promotions to officers from select arms – the Armoured Corps, Infantry and the Mechanised Infantry in the Combat Arms cadre.