Serving and retired paramilitary officers had dragged the govt to court; Delhi HC likely to decide the case concerning 10,000 serving and retired officers.
Picture for representation
While the government is still calculating the political and economic ramifications of the contentious One Rank One Pension (OROP), there could be more trouble ahead. On Thursday, a bench comprising Justice Kailash Gambhir and Nazmi Waziri in Delhi High Court is likely to decide on seven petitions it clubbed together, in the three-year-old case seeking implementation of Non Functional Upgradation (NFU) for officers serving in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF) & Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). This case impacts the future of over 10,000 officers according to estimates.
While stagnation in career progression in CAPFs as an issue is hardly new, one way to tackle it, according to seven petitions (which include five from serving officers and two from retired ones) to the Delhi HC is to grant NFU. NFU as a concept was introduced in the Sixth pay Commission and was granted to what the government termed 'Group A, organised services'. "What NFU does is that even if all in a particular batch of officers can't move up the ladder owing to the lack of vacancies and only one can, the others will automatically get the financial upgradation that the one who has got promotion will get. However, it involves getting only financial upgradation not rank or perks," said an officer aware of the case. The reason why the forces are fighting is that their officers were kept out of the ambit of NFU while others, mainly civilian agencies were granted so. "It impacts the morale. Among the main causes of people exiting the CAPFs is the lack of promotional avenues. Here, NFU will ensure I don't have to live in shame if the government can't find adequate vacancies for me," explained an officer.
"We petitioned the government but they didn't listen. So finally in 2012, officers from varied forces approached the Delhi HC. Case has been on and took three long years. The govt tried all the tricks in the trade to delay and divert the issue. It has been a very unpleasant fight against the very government we are mandated to obey," said another officer.
At the heart of the issue lies the classification of services into 'Organised' ones and otherwise, as was envisaged in the Sixth pay Commission. Government, during its arguments in the Delhi HC, maintained that CAPFs do not fall into the list of such 'Organised' services as a result of which they can not be granted NFU. Advocate Jyoti Bajwa who had argued the case for the petitioners said, "Despite risking their lives for the nation, be it in maintaining internal security or while guarding the borders, the government says they are not 'organized' services which in itself is laughable. We believe the government has floundered under pressure from lobbies which do not want the officers from the CAPF to grow as others do."
It is pertinent to note that CAPFs are led by officers from Indian Police Services (IPS) who may or may not have served in that organisation prior to taking over. This is another sticking point the CAPF officers point to while alleging that the government creates promotional avenues for IPS officers at their expense.
New Delhi, September 3, 2015 | Posted by Dishank Purohit | UPDATED 14:02 IST
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