New Delhi, July 13: Faced with an over 50 percent shortage of middle-rank officers in its Judge Advocate
General branch, Army is seeking officers with law degrees from
other arms to fulfill vacancies in the newly-created Armed
Forces Tribunal (AFT).
"There is a largescale deficiency of officers in the
rank of Lieutenant Colonels and Majors. Only 43 officers are
available against 91 vacancies in the branch. So, we are
looking to get officers from other arms and services to
fulfill vacancies in 15 benches of the AFT," Army sources told
a news agency here.
"There are 24 retired senior officers in the AFT other
than eight judges. To help out these retired service officers
with law matters, we have to send over 50 law-qualified
officers to the AFT. They would be used in Army`s legal cells
and our JAG branch also," they added.
However, taking officers from other branches in the
law stream is only an "interim" measure and they would be sent
back to their respective units once the JAG branch gets its
own law-qualified officers.s
"These officers would be sent back to their units but no
time-frame has been decided yet as it may take many years for
us to induct the required number of officers in the branch,"
the sources said.
The number of officers in the branch, they said, will be
reduced further as over 10 women officers in the ranks of Lt
Col and Major will also retire in the near future.
"These women officers had joined the Army as Short Service
Commission (SSC) officers. Though the Defence Ministry has
given nod for permanent commission to women in three branches
including the JAG but that will apply only for females joining
in future," sources said.
"If the rule is applied in retrospective, we would not
be losing them," they added.
Bureau Report
In other arms also, the Army is facing shortage of
around 25 percent officers and has initiated various measures
to attract the youth in larger numbers to join the Army.
Bureau Report
