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Supreme Court Asked to Phase Out IPS Deputation, But CAPF Bill Does The Opposite

| Mar 15, 2026, 10:07:19 AM | TOI.in
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For decades, 13,000 officers of India's Central Armed Police Forces have watched the top jobs in their own organisations go to outsiders. Officers of the CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and SSB, forces with a combined strength of nearly ten lakh personnel that guard the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, the China border in Ladakh, India's airports and nuclear installations, and the Naxal-affected heartland have been systematically denied the highest ranks in the forces they have served their entire careers. Those positions, from DIG to Director General, have historically been reserved for Indian Police Service officers on deputation, under a temporary arrangement introduced in the 1950s when the CRPF was expanding and lacked its own senior cadre. The CAPF has a full cadre now. The temporary measure never left. The matter reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of CAPF officers, granted them parity of status with the IPS, IAS and IRS, and directed the government to progressively reduce IPS deputation posts in the CAPFs up to the level of Inspector General within two years. The government challenged the verdict. The Supreme Court rejected the review petition in October 2025. The original direction stood. Implementation stalled and contempt petitions began accumulating. When the matter came up for hearing, the government sought one additional year to comply. But during this the Union Cabinet cleared the Central Armed Police Forces General Administration Bill, a legislation specifically designed to retain IPS deputation at the IG and DIG levels in the CAPFs. The exact arrangement the Supreme Court had directed the government to dismantle. One hand in court asking for more time. The other hand in Cabinet making more time permanently unnecessary. The government's coordination argument that IPS officers bring cross-force relationships that pure CAPF cadre leadership would struggle to replicate runs into two inconvenient comparisons: the Railway Protection Force functions efficiently with its own cadre in the top position, and the Indian Coast Guard no longer depends on Navy deputation. Both coordinate. Both function. Neither has collapsed. For 13,000 officers who have spent careers earning every stripe in conditions most Indians will never see, the CAPF Bill may not be good enough.

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