The Centre has decided to appoint Lt Gen. Anil Chauhan (retd) as the next Chief of Defence Staff, nine months after the country’s first CDS, General Bipin Rawat, died in a chopper crash in Tamil Nadu on December 8.

In May last year, Lt Gen. Chauhan had retired as the General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C) of the Eastern Command. His initial schooling had been at the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Calcutta’s Fort William.

“Government has decided to appoint Lt General Anil Chauhan (retired) as the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) who shall also function as Secretary to Government of India, Department of Military Affairs, with effect from the date of his assumption of charge and until further orders,” said a statement issued by the defence ministry on Wednesday.

In a career spanning over 40 years, Lt Gen. Chauhan held several command, staff and instrumental positions and had extensive experience in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, the statement said.

Born on May 18, 1961, Lt Gen. Chauhan was commissioned into the 11 Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army in 1981. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla (Pune), and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.

As Maj. Gen., Chauhan had commanded an infantry division in the critical Baramulla sector in Kashmir under the Northern Command. Later as Lt Gen., he commanded a corps in the Northeast and went on to become the GOC-in-C of the Eastern Command in September 2019. He held charge until his retirement in May 2021.

Although it is not an operational post, the CDS functions as the principal military adviser to the Prime Minister and the defence minister on matters including nuclear command.

In June this year the Centre had amended the rules governing the appointment of the CDS, stating that officers with the second-highest rank in the military can also be appointed to India’s top military post, leaving the door ajar for the three services chiefs to be superseded.

The new rules made any serving or retired lieutenant general, air marshal and vice-admiral aged below 62 eligible to be CDS.

Earlier, the eligible rank was not explicitly mentioned. But as Gen. Rawat was a four-star general and had been thus far the sole occupant of the newly created post, it was assumed that only a service chief would be appointed as CDS.

The service chiefs of the army, air force and the navy hold the ranks of general, air chief marshal and admiral, respectively.