Bring out the constitutional and statutory framework governing the appointment and tenure of Service Chiefs in India.

Article 53(2) vests the supreme command of the Armed Forces in the President, but expressly makes its exercise "regulated by law". The appointment and tenure of Service Chiefs therefore rest on a two-tier framework — a thin constitutional foundation filled in by statute, rules and executive convention.

Constitutional foundation

• Article 53(2) places supreme command in the President; the Chiefs exercise delegated, not independent, authority — the bedrock of civilian supremacy over the military.
• Union List Entries 1 and 2 (defence; naval, military and air forces) reserve the field exclusively to Parliament, barring any State role.
• Appointments are executive acts expressed in the President's name under Article 77, decided by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) chaired by the Prime Minister on the Defence Ministry's proposal.

Statutory and subordinate framework

• The Army Act, 1950 [1], Navy Act, 1957 and Air Force Act, 1950 constitute the forces and source the Chiefs' powers of command and discipline in law rather than in rank.
• Rules framed under these Acts — notably the Army Rules, 1954 [2] — govern commission, conditions of service and retirement.
• The Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Act, 2023 [3] extends command authority over tri-service formations, layering jointness onto single-service statutes.

Appointment and tenure in practice

• No statute prescribes selection criteria; seniority is convention, not entitlement, and the government retains discretion. The recent appointment of Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth, then Vice Chief, as COAS w.e.f. 30 June 2026 [4] illustrates the settled Vice-Chief-to-Chief route.
• Tenure is three years or age 62, whichever is earlier [2] — short, non-renewable, and without the removal safeguards judges enjoy; the CDS, heading the Department of Military Affairs created in 2019 [5], has a separately raised age ceiling.

The framework thus balances operational autonomy with democratic control. As theatreisation advances, codifying selection norms and aligning Chiefs' tenures with joint-command timelines would strengthen both continuity and accountability, deepening the constitutional principle of civilian primacy that Article 53 embodies.