Home ministry brings the CAPF Act into force, reserving top posts for IPS officers

The Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026, came into force on Thursday, 8 October, by a notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Act, passed by Parliament in April and numbered 9 of 2026, reserves half of inspector-general posts in the paramilitary forces for Indian Police Service officers on deputation, at least 67 percent of additional director-general posts for them, and every special director-general and director-general post for them. Those shares had previously sat in executive orders. They are now in statute.

The notification uses the commencement clause. In exercise of the powers under sub-section (2) of section 1, the Centre appointed 8 October 2026 as the date on which the provisions take effect. The Tribune reported the notification against a set of petitions already before the Supreme Court, filed by cadre officers of the forces who challenge the Act. A contempt petition is among them.

The judgment the petitioners say is being walked back

In May 2025 the Supreme Court said the deputation of IPS officers up to the rank of inspector general in the CAPFs should be progressively reduced over two years, so that cadre officers whose promotions had been delayed would have more room. The court said those delays can adversely affect morale. The petitioners have asked the court to direct the government to carry out that judgment. The Act points the other way. It writes a 50 percent IPS share at IG into law, and larger shares above that rank, on the day the notification landed.

The forces covered are the ones that hold the borders and the internal security grid: the Central Reserve Police Force, the Border Security Force, the Central Industrial Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Sashastra Seema Bal and the Assam Rifles, in the usual grouping of the CAPFs. The Act does not create a new force. It sets who may sit in the top ranks of the existing ones. At SDG and DG, the reservation is total. A cadre officer does not, under this statute, become director general.

The government's stated reason, in accounts of the law, is that the CAPFs run on a strict command structure and have operational needs distinct from other services, because of border security and internal enforcement. The petitioners' stated reason is the May 2025 judgment and a decade of litigation that, in their reading, had already gone their way on deputation. Both arguments are now in the same court, and the Act is in force while the petitions are heard.

What changed at midnight on the notification

Before Thursday, an executive order could be amended by another executive order. After Thursday, the shares are in an Act of Parliament. Changing them requires an amendment, or a court order that holds the provisions invalid. That is the practical shift for an IG vacancy that opens next month. Half of those posts are reserved for IPS officers on deputation by statute, not by a circular a new home secretary could withdraw.

Retired CAPF officers have called the framework discriminatory against cadre officers, New Kerala reported. The ministry has not, in the notification itself, answered the May 2025 judgment. It has appointed a commencement date. The next binding text will be whatever the Supreme Court does with the petitions and the contempt plea that were already on the file when the notification was issued.