Army delays decision on raising retirement age of officers and soldiers

The Indian Army has delayed the proposal to raise the retirement age of officers and jawans for the time being as it will be finalised with the cadre review exercise, which is underway.

"The proposal has been postponed as it will be approved along with the cadre review exercise which is going on," sources in the Indian Army said.

The presentations on cadre review are being done in the Department of Military Affairs and it is in the advanced stage, the sources added.

In the past, the DMA had issued a letter in which it had asked to prepare a draft of Government Sanction Letter for raising the retirement age of officers and also to cut down the pension of officers opting for Pre Mature Retirement.

Officers 

As per the new proposal, the officers at the rank of Colonel would retire at 57, Brigadier at 58 and Major General at 59 while currently, their retirement age are 54, 56 and 58, respectively. 

The same would be applicable to equivalent ranks in other Services.

The letter issued by the Office of Secretary DMA dated October 29 read, "It is proposed that a draft Government sanction Letter (GSL) may be kindly processed for perusal by Secretary DMA by November 10."

JCO and Other Ranks 

The age of retirement of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO) and Other Ranks in Logistics, Technical and Medical branches is also proposed to be increased to 57 years.

Pension 

"The plan to review the pension has been into cold storage but the plan has not been shelved," the sources said. 

The DMA decided to review the pension entitlements in order to stop the loss of specialists and super specialists who were trained for high skill jobs in the services but left it to work in other sectors.

But, the proposal had created controversy as many issues, including the issue of raising the numbers of the Low Medical Category, were highlighted by the veterans.

• Government sanction Letter
• Indian Army
• Retirement age
• cadre review exercise