Chief of the Naval Staff (India)

Being a permanent member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and the National Security Council (NSC), the CNS also bears the responsibility of advising the nation's civilian leadership i.e., the Government of India on all matters privy to the IN.

Statutorily, the CNS ranks 12th-overall in the Indian order of precedence, and is the IN's status-equivalent of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of the Army Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff - all three positions of which are also occupied by four-star officers from the armed forces.

Description

Roles and responsibilities

Seated at Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence (Navy) stationed in New Delhi. The CNS is the senior-most operational officer of the Indian Navy and is tasked with the following:

• Advising the Government of India on all matters privy to the Indian Navy.
• Commitment to enhancing the force's capabilities towards sustaining combat readiness and operational effectiveness during periods of peace and conflict.
• Coordinating various components of the IN towards the protection-cum-realization of the nation's maritime sovereignty during states of armed conflict or war.
• Providing direction towards the overall functioning of the organization's facets, such as command, control, administration and strategy.
• Convening courts-martial at the behest of the Central Government to review cases of misconduct during peace and wartime.
• Reviewing the judicial sentencing and pleas of officers convicted of professional misconduct whilst in service.

In addition to these responsibilities, the CAS is also a permanent member of:

• Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC)
• National Security Council (NSC)
• Defence Planning Committee (DPC)
• Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)

The office's eminence in the aforementioned groups thus grants the appointee with the role to advise the Minister of Defence (Raksha Mantri or RM) on the affairs related to the IN's functioning and the promotion of an comprehensive integrated planning policy with respect to the affairs of tri-service integration, doctrinal strategy, capability development, defence acquisition and infrastructure.

Structure

As the professional head of the force, the CNS is assisted by one subordinate officer and three principal staff officers, namely:

• Subordinate:
  • Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS)
• Principal Staff Officers:
  • Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (DCNS)
  • Chief of Materiel (COM)
  • Chief of Personnel (COP)

Promotion

Initially, beginning in the pre-independence era, until 1968, the office of CNS was held by a three-star vice admiral. However, the office's rank-specifications was raised to the four-star rank of admiral when then-CNS Vice Admiral Adhar Kumar Chatterji was promoted in March 1968; every CNS-appointee since then has been an admiral.

The move to appoint a new designate to the position usually begins several months before the change-of-command, wherein the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reviews the résumés of the IN's senior-most vice admirals, which regularly includes the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS), the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chiefs (FOC-in-C) of the force's three combatant commands and the Commander-in-Chiefs (C-in-C) of India's two integrated military commands.

Appointments to the position are made by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) - comprising the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence, upon recommendation from IHQ of MoD (Navy), whereupon the designated appointee is subsequently promoted to the rank of admiral.

Tenure

According to Part III of the IN's Regulations for the Navy, 1991 - a CNS-appointee reaches superannuation upon the completion of three years in the position or at the age of 62, whichever is earlier. However, an appointee may also be dismissed from office by the President of India before the conclusion of the tenure under the Section 15(1) of the Navy Act, 1957 and Article 310 of the Constitution. This provision was used by then-President K. R. Narayanan to dismiss then-CNS Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat from service in December 1998.

Between 1950 and 1990, the senior-most vice admirals in the IN's command cadre have customarily been appointed as CNS, even under the event of an abrupt stoppage during the incumbent's tenure - by termination or resignation; however, this tradition has since been broken thrice: first in 1990, when then CNS-designate Vice Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas superseded one senior officer, and again in 2014 and 2016, when then-Vice Admirals Robin K. Dhowan and Karambir Singh were appointed to the office superseding one senior officer, respectively.

Additionally, a CNS-appointee is also eligible to be selected for the position of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), in accordance with the Naval Ceremonial, Conditions of Service and Miscellaneous (Amendment) Regulations, 2022 - which prescribes that the designated nominee, in this case the CNS, must be under the age of 62 at the time of appointment as CDS; as of 2024, no CNS-appointee has ever been appointed as CDS. Although the office of CDS was originally created in 2019, the MoD had originally planned for it to be created in 2001 with then-CNS Admiral Sushil Kumar as its first appointee; however, the plan failed to materialize over interservice rivalry and Kumar never became the CDS.