Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has asked the armed forces to come up with suggestions to make the promotion process within the Services more transparent.
The move came after the ministry received a number of complaints regarding the promotion board system and lack of transparency.
Defence sources said this was one of the issues that Parrikar flagged during his address at the Commanders Conference of all the three Services earlier this month.
"The Services have been asked to come up with suggestions on their own to make the system more transparent," they said.
Arguing that the present system of promotion to higher grade, or the ranks of Brigadier and above, has its own logic, the sources, however, said that there is room for improvement.
The sources said it is necessary to not only be clean but also appear to be clean.
The armed forces at present follow a pyramidal structure for promotion. While at the bottom, there are a number of officers, the numbers are narrowed as they go up.
Sources in the armed forces said that the Services had
issued an order for "Redesignation of Appointments of AFHQ Civil Service Officers posted at Headquarters between 2003-08) under which a Director was re-designated as Principal Director and a Joint Director as Director.
It was clearly brought out that designations were purely local and would be used for day-to-day purposes alone and not entail change in status, prevailing rank and equivalence, sources said.
"It is further clarified that the present reiteration of rank equivalence is only for matters of assigning duties and functional responsibilities as is already existing in different offices of the respective Service HQrs of the Army, Navy and Air Force having component of Service personnel as well as civilian officers.
"It has no bearing on civilian employees outside these offices of the Service HQrs. It is reiterated that there is no change in the rank structure or the status of the Armed Forces personnel," the statement said.
However, sources alleged that Office of JS (Training) and Chief Administrative Officer has been issuing regular orders establishing protocol and status equivalence based on the redesignation.
They fear that with the letter of October 18 a Joint Secretary in the MoD will go a notch higher than a Major General.
