Junior Commissioned Officers Are Gazetted Officers, Clarifies Indian Army

Is JCO a gazetted post?

Yes, JCOs are gazetted officer. It's official now.

The Indian Army has officially accepted that Junior Commissioned Officers or JCOs are Gazetted Officers. This declaration is going to benefit more than 64,000 JCOs currently serving in Army.

The Army Headquarters has cancelled a communication issued earlier in a response to an RTI application filed six years back which had stated that the rank of JCO is a non-gazetted appointment as per the documents accessed by Press Trust of India.

This announcement was documented by Army headquarters amid growing resentment from a large section of serving and retired personnel over issues relating to pay-parity and concerns related to ranking.

It is now believed that the declaration on status of the JCOs made by Indian Army in 2011 was due to a 'major mistake' committed by authorities. Now this ambiguity has been removed and it is clear that JCOs are gazetted officers.

Junior Commissioned Officers in Indian Army are ranked in three categories - Naib Subedar, Subedar and Subedar Major.

As per the current pay structure, the rank of Subedar Major and Subedar falls in the pay band for gazetted officers.

What is the meaning of gazetted officer?

Gazetted Officers  are executive/ managerial/ supervisor level ranked public servants in India. Authority for a gazetted officer to issue an official stamp comes from the President of India or the Governors of States.

There are over 55,000 officials at the rank of Naib Subedar.

When asked how the "mistake classifying the JCO rank as non-gazetted post" got triggered by Army headquarters in 2011, a senior Army officer said there are separate definitions of officers and the JCOs in the manual of military law and it could have been a case of misinterpretation of the rule book.

The fresh development of clarifying this discrepancy in a letter is also seen as a message by the Indian Army to the government to address grievances of a section of the Army personnel whether serving or retired over what they call "disparity" in the current pay band.

This issue was also highlighted and discussed at the recently concluded Army Commanders' conference which favoured immediate removal of the alleged discrepancies.

Defence Ministry (MoD) sources have mentioned that they are examining the entire issue of rank-parity between military officials and civilian officers in the AFHQ cadre, asserting that "no false" equivalence will be allowed.

On the question whether the Army headquarters will send a fresh communication to the 'Right To Information' applicant who had filed the query about the status of the JCOs in 2011, Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said, "The matter is being examined as per the RTI regulations in armed forces."

Source: PTI, The Hindu