Govt to treat Admiral DK Joshi’s exit as voluntary to ensure he gets all retirement benefits

NEW DELHI: After accepting his resignation as Navy chief with unseemly haste, the government now says it has decided to treat Admiral Devender Kumar Joshi's exit as "voluntary retirement" to ensure he gets all retirement benefits.
Admiral Joshi still had 17 months to go when he put in his papers as Navy chief immediately after the accident on board submarine INS Sindhuratna on February 26, taking "moral responsibility" for the warship and submarine accidents over the last six months. Many serving officers said the resignation was in part due to "frustration" at the way the political-bureaucratic combine had failed to heed the Navy's red alerts about its depleting and ageing submarine fleet.

The defence ministry on Tuesday said it had got Admiral Joshi the "waiver", with President Pranab Mukherjee's approval, since he otherwise would have been deprived of some benefits and use of his rank. But it left most unimpressed, who said the legal position was that an officer could not be discriminated against simply because he had resigned, and not sought "premature retirement".

The fact that neither defence minister AK Antony, nor the government, on February 26 tried to persuade Admiral Joshi against taking the extreme step had raised eyebrows all around. Another former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash had also offered to resign in wake of the infamous naval war-room leak case in 2005-2006, but the then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee had refused to accept it.

The government is yet to appoint a new Navy chief, triggering speculation about how exactly the existing chain of succession, usually based on the seniority principle, will be impacted. Admiral Joshi was slated to retire in August 2015. After him, the most senior serving officer is Western Naval Command (WNC) chief Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, who was commissioned in June 1974.

The present vice-chief, Vice Admiral RK Dhowan, who is to retire on May 31 this year, was commissioned in January 1975, while Eastern Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Anil Chopra joined service in July 1975. Southern Command chief Vice Admiral Satish Soni, commissioned in July 1976, was slated to replace Admiral Joshi as the Navy chief in August 2015.