The Principal Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in New Delhi Wednesday issued notice to the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Finance on a petition filed by a serving Colonel who has demanded that the Non-Functional Upgrade (NFU), which is applicable to IAS officers and other Group ‘A’ services, be extended to armed forces as well. In his petition, Col Mukul Dev, of the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Branch, has contended that the morale of the officers has taken a hit owing to non-grant of the NFU, thereby also lowering the established status of the armed forces officers since Independence. He has argued that stagnation in the armed forces is more acute than the civil services and that the denial is in clear violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution “as the equals since Independence have been made unequals”. Arguing the petition before the Principal Bench, Jyoti Singh, Senior Counsel, and Colonel Rajiv Manglik (retd), advocates for the petitioner said the purpose of grant of NFU is not to equate the monetary benefits or earnings enjoyed by a particular service but it is granted with the aim to remove the stagnation due to acute shortage of vacancies and grant parity of promotional avenues within the IAS with a stipulated lead of two years to the IAS. The petitioner has argued that the parity established since Independence and upheld by the successive pay commissions between the armed forces and the All India Services/ Group ‘A’ services, IPS in particular, has been disturbed and the petitioner has been deprived of the benefits extended to his counterparts in parity in the civil services. It has been contended that the armed forces officers cadre meets all the attributes attached to the Group ‘A’ organised service. The petition claims that the NFU has been denied on the pretext that Military Service Pay (MSP) is being given to armed forces officers. Citing this as a “gross misconcept”, the petition says that NFU is to alleviate acute stagnation in service whereas MSP and other allowances is due to the postings at various difficult terrain and living conditions. It has also been pointed out that there are a number of Group ‘A services, who do not meet all the criteria for Group ‘A’, have been awarded the NFU. The services mentioned are Indian Legal Service and Indian Trade Service, Indian Statistical service, Indian Economic service and Central Information service.

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