Govt to give better service benefits to CAPF officers after court order

The government may soon accord the 'organised service' recognition and service benefits to thousands of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) officers who have been seeking better promotion and monetary benefits as they serve the maximum of their careers in hard combat zones of Naxalism, terrorism and counter-insurgency. Official sources said the Union Home Ministry is working with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to issue a notification in this context, in view of two recent judgements of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court.

"High-level consultations are on and the subject has been reviewed by the home ministry and informed to the Prime Ministers Office. "The ministry has taken a number of measures for the welfare of the jawans and officers of these forces like the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB in the past and some more specific ones post the February 14 Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF men. This is also a step in that direction," a senior official said.

The apex court in February had upheld a Delhi High Court verdict on the subject and agreed that all the CAPFs be recognised as "organised services", saying it will remove stagnation, ensuring the promotion and other service-related benefits to officers in the same post.

The Delhi High Court on March 15 had asked the Centre to file a compliance affidavit on the subject after a retired and a serving officer of these forces filed a contempt petition before it says the government has not complied with its directions. Ankur Chibber, the counsel for the petitioners, told PTI that the HC has asked the government to file the compliance report and had said that it will take up the matter next on March 28.

In its February order, the Supreme Court had held that group "A" officers of the CAPFs should be given all benefits, including non-functional financial upgradation (NFFU) from 2006 in terms of the 6th pay commission.

The top court, during this hearing, had upheld the Delhi HC's two verdicts by which it had granted "organised service" status to these forces and to the officers of the Railway Protection Force (RPF). NFFU is a concept introduced in the 6th pay commission and was granted to what the government termed as Group "A" organised services.

Under NFFU, if all the officers of a particular batch cannot move up the ladder owing to lack of vacancies and only one does, the others will automatically get financial upgradation as the one promoted. However, it would involve only a financial upgrade but not rank or perks.

The recognition will also enable CAPF officers to get better deputation opportunities in other government departments that will help them gather knowledge and expertise of different domains. The SC had dismissed the appeals of Centre against the Delhi HC order, saying that in the monographs published by the DoPT right from 1986 till date, CAPFs have been shown to be a part of the central group "A" services.

"Therefore, all throughout from 1986 till date, in the monographs published by the DoPT, CAPFs have been shown to be a part of Central group A services. Thereafter it would not be open for the DoPT not to consider and/or treat the CAPFs as an organized group A services," the bench had said. The officers of these forces command units that are deployed to undertake anti-Naxal operations, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency combats, border guarding and render a variety of roles for maintenance of internal security and also conduct elections across the country.

(With inputs from agencies.)