| Post: | Chief |
| Body: | Defence Staff |
| Insignia: | Seal of Chief of Defence Staff (India).png |
| Insigniacaption: | Badge of the Chief of Defence Staff |
| Flag: | Flag of Chief of Defence Staff (India).svg |
| Flagborder: | yes |
| Incumbent: | General Anil Chauhan |
| Acting: | N |
| Incumbentsince: | 30 September 2022 |
| Type: | Chief of defence |
| Status: | Overall professional head of the Indian Armed Forces. |
| Abbreviation: | CDS |
| Member Of: | |
| Reports To: | President of India Prime Minister of India Minister of Defence |
| Residence: | New Delhi, India |
| Seat: | South Block, Secretariat Building, New Delhi |
| Appointer: | Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) President of India |
| Termlength: | [1] |
| First: | General Bipin Rawat |
| Deputy: | Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CISC) |
| Salary: | monthly[2] [3] |
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is the principal military authority and senior-most appointment of the Indian Armed Forces.[4] Deemed the overall professional head of India’s three armed services, namely, the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force, the CDS is the highest-ranking military officer in service, responsible for overseeing inter-service jointness across all disciplines related to military functioning.[5] Primarily, the office operates on a status of primus inter pares i.e., first among equals with the chiefs of the three services, and functions as the Permanent-Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) – the inter-service syndicate responsible for ensuring the establishment and preservation of military integration.
Statutorily, the CDS is the presiding secretary of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), the foremost civil-cum-military entity responsible for fostering professional coordination between the services, and by extension, is also the principal military advisor to the nation’s civilian leadership i.e., the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on affairs privy to inter-service integration; as such, the office exists primarily as an advisor and adjudicator position, endowed with no operational command control.[6]
Since its formal creation in 2020, the CDS is officiated on a rotational basis by four-star officers nominated from either of the three services. Domestically, the office ranks 12th-overall in the Indian order of precedence, and is the status-equivalent of the Chief of the Army Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff; internationally, it is functionally identical to Pakistan's Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, the United Kingdom's Chief of the Defence Staff, and the United States' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[7] [8]
As the principal military authority of the Indian Armed Forces, the CDS is tasked with multiple mandates, which are elaborated in the undermentioned:[9]
Since its creation in January 2020, the office of CDS has customarily been held by a four-star officer from the three armed services, specifically, either a general, admiral or air chief marshal.[12] [13] The move to appoint a designate to the office is initiated by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), wherein the résumés of candidates recommended by the armed services are submitted for intense review, before being sent to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) - comprising the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence, whereupon the appointment is finalized.[14]
Notably, at the time of the office's creation, no fixed structure for an order of succession existed; thus, in the formative period of the office's existence, the senior-most service chief was recommended for appointment; the first instance of this was General Bipin Rawat, then the COAS and senior-most amongst the three chiefs.[14] [15] However, Rawat's unexpected death in 2021 whilst in tenure exposed this flaw. The office of CDS was vacant for nine months before a successor was named. Consequently, in June 2022, the MoD established a permanent set of appointment-cum-succession rules, stating that four-star and three-star officers from the armed services, notwithstanding their states of being active or retired, would be deemed eligible candidates to be appointed to the office, provided they hadn't attained the age of 62 at the time of appointment.[16]
As of 2022, the appointment regulations for CDS, whilst same for the three services, are classified distinctively, namely:
The first time the regulations were actively exercised was in the appointment of Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan in September 2022; Chauhan, a former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) in the IA who had retired in May 2021, was promptly recalled to active service and promoted to general.[17] [18]
Under an initial set of regulations established by the MoD in December 2019,[19] the service chiefs from the three services, namely, the COAS, the CNS and the CAS, having completed their mandated three-year tenure or having attained the age of 62, were deemed eligible to be appointed CDS, with the chosen designate tenuring the office to the maximum deemed age of 65; unlike the service chiefs, the CDS has no fixed tenure, but only an upper age limit.[19] The aforementioned 2022 regulations expanded the office's reach, allowing both active and retired officers to occupy the office until the age of 65.[16]
Previously, in the event of an abrupt stoppage during the incumbent's tenure - by termination, resignation or sudden demise, the senior-most service chief was made acting-COSC and by extension, an ex officio-CDS until a suitable successor was appointed; this situation has occurred only once, when General Manoj Mukund Naravane, then-COAS of the IA, was made acting-COSC upon the death of General Rawat, the then-incumbent CDS.[20]
Immediately upon the establishment of India's independence, the country's post-British Raj armed forces formed the Chiefs of Staff Committee, a triumvirate responsible for inter-service coordination across multiple disciplines related to the country's military affairs.[21] Comprising the service chiefs of the three armed services, namely, the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) and the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), the committee was presided over by the senior-most of the service chiefs, under the designation of Chairman-COSC.[22] Practically, the designation was not a position, but rather a title; nevertheless, it was instituted as an arrangement to act centrally as an arbitrator on inter-service affairs and as a single-point advisor, or better, as the overall representative of the armed forces to the Minister of Defence (MoD) on all proceedings related to the country's defence.[22]
The office of CDS maintains a separate command flag, regardless of the incumbent appointee's parent service, symbolizing the independence of the position and its associated authority from the armed services.[23] The flag comprising a maroon field - representing the inter-service jointness, furnished with the National Flag of India in the canton and the inter-service insignia of the Indian Armed Forces - comprising twin-crossed swords, an unfouled anchor and an eagle surrounded by an oak wreath in gold-furnishing. Similar to that of the service chiefs, this particular command flag is preferably displayed on the CDS's official car and at his office.[24]
Whilst the CDS is a rotational appointment held by officers drawn from the three armed services, the CDS is an independent entity, thus mandating a distinct set of accoutrements. Notably, the CDS uniform allows the appointee to retain certain paraphernalia, such as the uniform of the appointee's parent service and its associated decorations; nonetheless, it lacks a lanyard, unlike the uniforms of the service chiefs.
In addition, the office mandates several distinct emendations, the primary of which are undermentioned:
| width=5% | Item | width=10% | Image | width=40% | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epaulette | Maroon shoulder epaulette attached with the State Emblem of India atop the inter-service insignia of the Indian Armed Forces surrounded by an oak wreath, in gold-furnishing.[25] | ||||
| Service cap | Peak cap of the appointee's parent service, with an additional maroon band attached with the inter-service insignia surrounded by an oak wreath, in gold-furnishing.[26] | ||||
| Belt buckle | Silver buckle designed with the inter-service insignia surrounded by an oak wreath, in gold-furnishing. | ||||
| Button | Gold-colored button furnished solely with inter-service insignia. | ||||
* - Veteran recalled to active service
! colspan=9| Vacant