Government amends rules for appointment of next Chief of Defence Staff

New Delhi: The Government has amended the service rules of the Army, Navy and Air Force to make serving three-star officers and retired three- and four-star eligible for appointment as Chief of Defence Staff. The move has come five months after the death of the country's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, in a chopper crash.

As per the latest government notification, the Union Government may, if considered necessery, in the public interest, so to do, appoint as Chief of Defence Staff, an officer who is serving as Lieutenant General or General or an officer who has retired in the rank of Lieutenant General or General but has not attained the age of sixty-two years on the date of his appointement.

The office of the Chief of Defence Staff had been one of the biggest military reforms since independence, which has resulted in more coordination in working between the government and the defence forces.

The defence forces in the country earlier used to go through bureaucracy to get their modernisation projects, and promotions cleared, but ever since the Department of Military Affairs was formed, all these functions have come under the military domain.

The post of CDS has been vacant since 8 December last year.

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