Chiefs Of Naval Staff: India
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The chiefs
Name Tenure
Rear Admiral J.T.S. Hall ................................................... 15 August 1947-14 August 1948
Admiral Sir Edward Parry ............................................... 15 August 1948-13 October 1951
Admiral Sir Mark Pizey .................................................... 14 October 1951-21 July 1955
Vice Admiral Sir Stephen Carlill ..................................... 22 July 1955-21 April 1958
Vice Admiral R.D. Katari .................................................. 22 April 1958-4 June 1962
Vice Admiral B.S. Soman.................................................. 5 June 1962-3 March 1966
Admiral A.K. Chatterjee ................................................... 4 March 1966-27 February 1970
Admiral S.M. Nanda ......................................................... 28 February 1970-28 February 1973
Admiral S.N. Kohli ............................................................ 1 March 1973-28 February 1976
Admiral J.L. Cursetji ......................................................... 1 March 1976-28 February 1979
Admiral R.L. Pereira ......................................................... 1 March 1979-28 February 1982
Admiral O.S. Dawson ....................................................... 1 March 1982-30 November 1984
Admiral R.H. Tahiliani ..................................................... 1 December 1984-30 November 1987
Admiral J.G. Nadkarni ..................................................... 1 December 1987-30 November 1990
Admiral L. Ramdas ........................................................... 1 December 1990-30 September 1993
Admiral V.S. Shekhawat ................................................... 1 October 1993-30 September 1996
Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat................................................. 1 October 1996-30 December 1998
Admiral Sushil Kumar...................................................... 31 December 1998 - 29 December 2001
Admiral Madhvendra Singh............................................ 29 December 2001 - 31 July 2004
Admiral Arun Prakash ..................................................... 1 August 2004 - 30 October 2006
Admiral Sureesh Mehta .................................................... 31 August 2006 - 31 August 2009
Admiral Nirmal Verma ..................................................... 31 August 2009- 31 August 2012
Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi..............................................31 August 2012- 26 February 2014
Admiral Robin K Dhowan..................................................17 April 2014- 31 May 2016
Admiral Sunil Lanba.................................................................31 May 2016.-31 May 2019
Admiral Karambir Singh..........................................................31 May 2019 to 30 Nov 21
Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar ..............................................30 Nov 21 to 30 April 2024
Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi PVSM, AVSM, NM ..............................................30 April 2024
Trends in appointment
Superseding the seniority principle, 2014
The Times of India, December 18, 2016
Rajat Pandit
Vice-Admiral Shekhar Sinha was superseded by Admiral Robin Dhowan to become Navy chief in April 2014 after the then chief Admiral D K Joshi resigned taking moral responsibility after a string of warship accidents.
The opposition immediately attacked the Centre for “further politicising“ the armed forces, which are justifiably proud of their apolitical and secular credentials, after it first went to town over the “surgical strikes“ against terror launch pads in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir.
But conversely , some experts say , military chiefs are meant to oversee the management of national security and strategy in tune with what has been decided by the top political executive.
“It's actually the ease of doing business. So, the political executive should have no constraints while choosing who it wants to be the next military chief, RBI governor or foreign secretary. That's does not mean that the ones overlooked are less competent,“ said a senior expert.
Superseding the seniority principle, 2019
Rajat Pandit, After Army, govt skips seniority for Navy chief, March 24, 2019: The Times of India
Eastern Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Karambir Singh will head the Navy after Admiral Sunil Lanba retires on May 31, the government said.
Vice Admiral Singh, who will be the first helicopter pilot to become the Navy chief, will supersede Andaman and Nicobar Command chief Vice Admiral Bimal Verma, who was commissioned into the force six months before him in January 1980.
This will be the second such supersession by the NDA government, which had bypassed two Lt Gens (Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz) to appoint Bipin Rawat as the Army chief in December 2016. “The government has decided that merit, not just seniority, will be the deciding factor,” said a senior government official.
Singh to head Navy till Nov 2021
Vice Admiral Singh, who has extensively flown Chetak, Kamov-25 and Kamov-28 anti-submarine warfare helicopters, also commanded missile corvette INS Vijaydurg and guidedmissile destroyers INS Rana and INS Delhi during his career spanning 39 years. He will now be the Navy chief till November 2021, having earlier also served as the flag officer commanding Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area, director-general of Project Seabird, deputy chief and vice-chief of Naval staff.
Sources, in turn, said the “black mark” against Vice Admiral Verma was that he was the principal director of naval operations as a commodore when the infamous Navy war room leak case erupted in 2005. A letter of “severe displeasure” had then been issued to Vice Admiral Verma, whose elder brother Admiral Nirmal Verma later served as the Navy chief in 2009-2012.
Vice Admiral Verma has been relegated to an unusually long tenure at the helm of the tri-service ANC since February 2016, without being considered to take over any of the three operational commands in Navy.
This is the second time in recent years that the top naval hierarchy has witnessed an upheaval. In April 2014, Admiral Robin Dhowan superseded Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha to become the Navy chief after the then chief Admiral D K Joshi had earlier resigned taking moral responsibility for a string of warship accidents.
The government does have the right to appoint whoever it wants to be the next chief of the Army, IAF or Navy, but successive regimes have almost always followed the seniority principle. There have been very few exceptions to it in the past. Indira Gandhi in 1983, for instance, had superseded Lt Gen S K Sinha to appoint Gen A S Vaidya as the Army chief.
The ‘black mark’ against Vice Admiral Verma was that he was the principal director of naval operations when the Navy war room leak case erupted in 2005
