| Post: | Chief |
| Body: | the Naval Staff |
| Flag: | File:Admiral ensign of Indian Navy.svg |
| Flagborder: | yes |
| Flagcaption: | Flag of the Chief of the Naval Staff |
| Incumbent: | Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi |
| Incumbentsince: | 30 April 2024 |
| Status: | Professional head of naval branch of the Indian Armed Forces. |
| Member Of: | National Security Council Defence Planning Committee Defence Acquisition Council |
| Reports To: | President of India Prime Minister of India Minister of Defence Chief of Defence Staff |
| Seat: | Integrated HQ of MoD (Navy), South Block, Central Secretariat, New Delhi |
| Appointer: | Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) President of India |
| Constituting Instrument: | Navy Act, 1957 (Act No. 62 of 1957) |
| Precursor: | Chief of the Naval Staff and Commander-in-Chief, Indian Navy |
| First: | Vice-Admiral Edward Parry |
| Abbreviation: | CNS |
| Deputy: | Vice Chief of the Naval Staff |
| Salary: | monthly[1] [2] |
The Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) is a statutory office held by the professional head of the Indian Navy (IN), the naval branch of the Indian Armed Forces.[3] Customarily held by a four-star admiral, the CNS is the senior-most operational officer of the IN, tasked with the roles of overseeing the force's overall functioning during states of peace and conflict, along with the realization of India's strategic maritime objectives, namely, the defence of the country's sovereignty against maritime threats and the security of international sea lines in the Indo-Pacific.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
Seated at Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence (Navy) (IHQ of MoD (Navy)), stationed in New Delhi, the CNS is the senior-most operational officer of the IN, and is tasked with the following:
In addition to these responsibilities, the CAS is also a permanent member of:
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 IAF'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.[12] [13]
As the professional head of the force, the CNS is assisted by one subordinate officer and three principal staff officers, namely:
Initially, beginning in the pre-independence era, until 1968, the office of CNS was held by a three-star vice admiral.[15] 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.[15]
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.[16]
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.[17]
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.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20] [21]
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.[22] [23] 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.[24] [25]
Following independence and the subsequent partition of the subcontinent, the RIN was bifurcated into two new entities: the successor Royal Indian Navy (RIN) - responsible for the Dominion of India, and the newly-formed Royal Pakistan Navy (RPN) - responsible for the Dominion of Pakistan. At the time, the RIN's commanding officer was designated the Commander-in-Chief, Royal Indian Navy."[26] On 21 June 1948, the title of "Chief of the Naval Staff" was added,[27] On 21 June 1948, the officer was re-designated as Chief of the Naval Staff and Commander-in-Chief, Royal Indian Navy (CNS/C-in-C, RIN) - as a measure to reflect uniformity with the C-in-Cs of the post-independence Indian Army and the Royal Indian Air Force.[28]
Upon India's establishment as a republic on 26 January 1950, the RIN was rechristened as the Indian Navy (IN), dropping the Royal-prefix; subsequently, the position's designation was again modified to Chief of the Naval Staff and Commander-in-Chief, Indian Air Force (CNS/C-in-C, IN).[29]
In 1955, the designation of the office was shortened to simply to Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) through the Commanders-In-Chief (Change in Designation) Act, 1955; as a result of the Act, the tenure of the then-serving C-in-C - Admiral Sir Charles Thomas Mark Pizey, continued under the new designation.[30] Between 1950 and 1958, the office was officiated by flag officers seconded from the RN, which ceased with the appointment of Vice Admiral Ram Dass Katari in April 1958 - which thus made him the first Indian officer to be promoted to the rank, and subsequently, the first Indian-origin chief of the IN.[31] [32] [29] Ten years later, in March 1968, the rank-specifications for the office was raised to the rank of admiral, with the promotion of then-CNS Vice Admiral Adhar Kumar Chatterji.[15]
In December 1998, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, the then-incumbent CNS and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (Chairman COSC), was abruptly dismissed from office, which made him the only CNS-appointee - and the only-ever military chief in the Indian Armed Forces to be relieved from service to date.[33] [34]