Centre widens pool to select next CDS

NEW DELHI: India’s next chief of defence staff (CDS) could be one of the three serving chiefs, any serving three-star officer, any retired chief who is below 62 or any retired three-star officer also below the same age, with the government amending the Army, Air Force and Navy rules to significantly broaden the pool from which CDS will be selected.

Top serving and retired officers from the army, air force and navy will now be eligible for the top post that fell vacant last December after General Bipin Rawat was killed in a helicopter crash on December 8, 2021.

Three gazette notifications, published on June 6, state that the Central government may appoint any of these top serving or retired officers as CDS “if considered necessary, in public interest.”

“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,” said the gazette notification amending the Army Rules 1954.

Similar notifications have amended the respective regulations for the Navy and Air Force, expanding the pool for the CDS to include retired or serving officers of the rank of Vice-Admiral of the Navy and Air Marshal of the Air Force.

The notifications reiterated that the government can extend the service of CDS “for such period as it may deem necessary subject to a maximum age of sixty-five years”.

Rawat was spearheading the theaterisation drive to best utilise the military’s resources for future wars and operations. His demise was seen as a setback to