What is UNIFORM ?

TIOL-DDT 2467

31.10.2014
Friday

Should Customs Assistant Commissioners wear uniform?

NOT really an elementary question my dear, as DDT found out the hard way.

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.