Ministry Of Defence Accords ‘Former Servicemen’ Status To Retired Military Nursing Service Personnel

Marking a much-awaited move for a section of the Armed Forces, the Nirmala Sitharaman led Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Friday (17 May 2019) decided to allow the status of 'Former Servicemen' to the retired personnel from the Military Nursing Service (MNS), reports India Today.

Set up in 1943 as an auxiliary force, the MNS has only women officers who serve as nursing staff in all the three services with permanent commissions. Now, the privileges accorded to them stand at par with the privileges accorded to officers from all other disciplines in the armed forces.

The MoD will be implementing the order in accordance with necessary procedures after which these personnel will benefit from equality and parity with other officers from the defence services.

It should be noted though that even though MoD has given its approval, a matter about the same remains under litigation in the Supreme Court as the MoD in 2009 had appealed against a similar order from the Armed Forces Tribunal which wanted the MoD to act in this spirit.