7th Pay Commission: Central government gets into action to fix this retirement anomaly

7th Pay Commission: The long-pending demands of age profile issues of combat units Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have got the central government's attention. The Union Home Ministry has asked Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) chiefs to conduct a data analysis exercise and assess "long term" age profile issues of combat units once the retirement age of their troops is raised from 57 years to 60 in the wake of a court order to fix an existing anomaly, officials were quoted as saying in a report by news agency PTI. 

The report said a meeting was held in the ministry on the subject on February 27 in the wake of a Delhi High Court order. 

The high court had noted that the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC), which had examined the issue, by a majority of 2:1 had favoured enhancement of the retirement age of the commandant and below ranks in the three CAPFs, said the report on March 1.

The court termed current policy of different age of superannuation in the four forces of CRPF, BSF, ITBP and SSB as "discriminatory and unconstitutional". It observed that this has created two classes in these uniformed forces.

The home ministry meeting discussed various implications of raising the retirement age of these four forces to 60 years like the CISF and Assam Rifles, a senior official was quoted as saying.

The Home Ministry has asked the Directors Generals (DGs) of these forces to conduct data analysis and furnish information to it by the next week and has called for a fresh meeting on March 6.

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A directive issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said CAPF chiefs should assess the impact of the proposed decision on "future" recruitments, age profile of personnel deployed for border guarding tasks and deputation of these men and women to special forces like the NSG, Special Protection Group and the NDRF.

CRPF is the largest CAPF of the country with over 3 lakh personnel and is tasked as the lead internal security force, while the BSF guards Indian borders. The ITBP mans the Indian frontier with the SSB to secure open borders with Bhutan.