TIOL-DDT 2467
31.10.2014
Friday
Friday
Should
Customs Assistant Commissioners wear uniform?
A
Superintendent who was promoted last week as an Assistant Commissioner of Customs
called me and informed me that he was going to call on his Commissioner in full
uniform.
I asked him
what the uniform was for the Assistant Commissioner (of Customs)? He was
surprised and told me that he would wear whatever is the uniform. But what is
it?, I insisted. He said that the just retired Assistant Commissioner had
promised to give him the uniform articles. I called up the just retired
Assistant Commissioner who told me that an Assistant Commissioner from Mumbai
Air Customs gave him the uniform articles. I called up an Assistant
Commissioner in Mumbai Air Customs and asked him whether there is any
prescribed uniform for the Assistant Commissioner and whether he wears one. He
didn't like my questions and told me that he was new to the job and I should
ask the Commissioner.
This was
getting curious.
I called up
several Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners in several airports. Noted
journalist Tavleen Singh recently wrote that she sent a text message to Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley to call her. And he called her promptly. But a
Commissioner is not an ordinary Finance Minister and I am no Tavleen. Getting
through to the Commissioners was really as difficult as getting the Service Tax
registration cancelled. I had to answer a number of questions from the
protective private secretaries. Most of the Commissioners were busy in meetings
but it must be fairly admitted that many of them were kind enough to call back.
But the opinion was unanimous. Nobody knew whether a Customs Assistant Commissioner
should wear a uniform.
All the
Assistant Commissioners I spoke to avoided the direct question, "do you
wear a uniform?", while one conceded that he wears one during protocol. I
asked him to describe the uniform and he said he was not authorised to talk to
me. Another Assistant Commissioner who wore a uniform told me that he did not
know the authority which authorised him to wear a uniform - he just walked into
the shop that sells uniform articles and bought all that the shopkeeper gave
him.
The Commissioners
too were not sure whether there is a prescribed uniform - some promised to call
me back with the information, but were not available when I called them.
But then can I
just leave the uniform confusion? And even one of our eminent commentators, Gururaj
is in favour of a uniform for Customs, though not for Central Excise.
The Kolkata
Custom House in February 2012 issued an Office order elaborating the uniform
pattern as per the Preventive Manual. Where can I get this sacred manual? The
DRI released a draft preventive manual more than four years ago and that draft
is yet to be finalised even though the draft was approved by CBEC. The earlier
manual is perhaps of 1897. And nobody seems to have a copy of that. An
unauthenticated version of the Manual is doing the rounds. The latest draft
manual is totally silent about uniforms.
This manual
(the unauthenticated one) describes that the Uniform for Superintendents and
Preventive Officers has been designed on the pattern of the Navy and explains
each part of the uniform. For example:
Epaulettes: The
epaulettes prescribed for Preventive Officers is 2 stripes in golden braid of
1/2 inch thickness along with golden Ashoka Pillar in the middle and a golden
brass half-ball button with Ashoka emblem at the pointed end on a black
background. The words ‘Customs' shall be inscribed in golden braid at the broad
end. The Preventive Officers who have completed 10 years of continuous service
in the grade shall wear 3 stripes on the epaulettes. [Note - for deployments at
the International Airports, the background of epaulettes shall be blue]
The uniform
for the Preventive Superintendent is identical to that of Preventive Officer
except that the number of stripes on the epaulettes shall be four and the colour
of the badge shall be silver white.
And there is
no mention about the uniform for the Assistant Commissioner!
This is a
strange department. There is a prescribed uniform for the Central Excise
Assistant Commissioner, but when the same officer works as a Customs Assistant
Commissioner, he has no uniform, or nobody knows whether he has a uniform or he
wears one that is supplied by the all-knowing shopkeeper!
Long ago, I
asked Swamy Chinmayananda, "why do all sadhus wear the saffron uniform and
who prescribed that dress code for them?"
The Swamiji
replied that it is only for identification and there is no manual as such.
