NFU

  1. Of late, social media is replete with issue of non- grant of Non Functional Upgradation, NFU in short, to officers of our Armed Forces by the Central Govt. Tone and tenor of these social media posts by retired and serving Armed Forces officers tells us that they feel discriminated by this denial of NFU while civilian officers of Central Govt like IPS, IFoS and a plethora of other central officer cadres have been granted this financial advantage by the Central Govt since 2006. This feeling of discrimination among retired and serving Armed Forces officers is gaining momentum and getting more vocal by the day. Matter is already reached the doors of Supreme Court of India where a final decision is likely in near future.
  2. So, what is it all about? What is the genesis of this issue? What are its implications? These and many other questions should bother a conscious citizen. So, here it is.
  3. In 2006, Central Govt had constituted the 6th Central Pay Commission. The principal task of this commission was to make recommendations regarding the structure of pay, allowances and other facilities etc to the civilian Central Govt employees and personnel of the Armed Forces. The commission submitted it’s report in March 2008 to the Central Govt and with some alterations, was implemented in August 2008. These measures took effect, by and large, from 01 January 2006. However, a major recommendation of the commission regarding NFU was quietly implemented later in April 2009. In short, NFU implies that whenever an IAS Officer is posted at the Centre to a particular grade carrying a specific grade pay in Pay band 3 or Pay Band 4, the officers belonging to batches of Organized Group A Services that are senior by two years or more and have not so far been promoted to that particular grade would be granted the same grade on nonfunctional basis. Such up gradation is not linked to the vacancies in the grade and is purely non functional.
  4. This measure was adopted apparently on the basis of a pay commission recommendation which aimed to alleviate the issue of stagnation in promotions of organised Group A services. Even though this recommendation excluded IPS and IFoS officers, NFU was extended to them through a separate govt order. However, officers of the Armed Forces were denied this financial benefit, even after several cogent representations by Army HQ, IAF HQ, Naval HQ and Chiefs Of Staff Committee against this blatant injustice. A committee under Cabinet Secretary, formed at the intervention of PMO in 2012, also failed to set it right. Such correspondence did not result in a meaningful solution. It became apparent that the strong IAS lobby in the Central Govt is against grant of this financial benefit to Armed Forces. Around 2013-14, IAS officers in Ministry Of Defence etc began to float the idea that this issue would be referred to 7th Central Pay Commission.  Serving and retired Armed Forces officers were justifiably livid at this arbitrary and unjust stand of the IAS lobby.
  5.  Officers of Central Armed Police Forces were similarly denied this benefit.
  6. Tired by obfuscation by Central Govt, Colonel Mukul Dev and 289 other serving and retired officers of Army, Navy and Air Force of Indian Army independently approached Armed Forces Tribunal New Delhi in 2015, praying for grant of NFU to Armed Forces Officers. In December 2016, the Tribunal held that govt has been unfair, evasive and without valid justification in denying NFU to the Armed Forces officers and ordered grant of NFU to all officers of the Armed Forces. However, between April 2017 and January 2018, Ministry of Defence appealed in Supreme Court against this order of the Armed Forces Tribunal. Supreme Court has clubbed all these cases, has completed the hearing by March 2019 and reserved it’s judgment.
  7. In the meanwhile, officers of the various Central Armed Police Forces who too were similarly denied this benefit of NFU, had approached Delhi High Court and were able to obtain an order in their favour. Central Govt had appealed in Supreme Court in their case too where it lost in February 2019.
  8. The Armed Forces officers are contending that since 3rd CPC, a broad pay parity exists between the Armed Forces officers and the civilian Group A officers, particularly with IPS, with a slight edge for the former to cater for their tough service conditions. Denial of NFU to them has significantly disturbed this parity in favor of civilian officers. The basis of grant of NFU to civilian officers is disparity in promotion prospects when compared to IAS and seeks to provide financial comfort to such stagnated officers. It is the case of Armed Forces officers that they suffer the most on this issue due to steep pyramid structure in the forces. While IAS has 30% posts in JAG, Armed Forces have only 0.75% in equivalent slab. Similarly IAS has 50% posts in HAG, Armed Forces have only 0.25% in equivalent slab. This shows that the disparity in promotion potential between civilian and Armed Forces officers. It is thus logical to conclude that the benefit of NFU is required to be given to Armed Forces officers too, which are facing the problem of acute stagnation. To top it, civilian Group A officers working under Armed Forces officers in Military Engineering Service etc have been granted NFU which has resulted in an anomalous situation that subordinate civilian officers are drawing much higher pay.
  9. Central Govt is opposing grant of NFU to Armed Forces officers on some very baseless grounds. These are:
    1. 6th CPC has recommended NFU only for Organised Group A Services and not to Armed Forces officers.
    1. Armed Forces officers are granted other allowances which compensate non grant of NFU.
    1. Structure and hierarchy of Armed Forces officers will get disturbed if NFU is granted to them.
  10. All these arguments are hollow. 6th CPC had not recommended grant of NFU to IPS and IFoS too. However NFU has been extended to them too. Further, Armed Forces fulfill all criteria laid down for Organised Group A service. Pay Commissions are only recommending bodies. Their recommendations are not binding upon the Govt. Govt can and have often acted differently from the pay commission recommendations. Further, 7th CPC has recommended grant of NFU to Armed Forces officers but the vested interests in Central Govt have not allowed that to be implemented. As for allowances to Armed Forces, they are meant for specific difficult conditions where they have to serve; and do not cater for lack of promotion prospects.
  11. The phantom of disturbance in structure and hierarchy of Armed Forces is contrived. NFU benefit will only provide financial comfort to an officer and not disturb the command and control structure. It has not created any such problems in civilian arena which too function with a defined structure and hierarchy.
  12. The matter is already in Supreme Court and the judgment may be delivered any day. It is time that Central Govt brings this sordid drama to an end and graciously extend NFU to Armed Forces. When nation is facing external and internal threats and has given a solid thrashing to terrorist bases in Pakistan and Myanmar, we need to build up the morale of the Armed Forces. Let them fight the enemy on borders, do not force them to battle it out in courts.

JAI HIND

Written by: Colonel Nisheeth Singhal (Retired)

Picture Credit: Financial Express

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