MYTHS ABOUT THE SERVICES SELECTION BOARD INTERVIEW

The officers in the Army Medical Corps, Army Dental Corps and Military Nursing Service are selected for training based on a departmentally conducted test and interview in accordance with Para 109 of regulations for the Army, 1987. The Doctors, Dentists and Nurses do not undergo any Services Selection Board (SSB) interview for Commissioning in the Army. They are selected based on their professional qualifications, not for their officers like qualities (OLQs). Hence no Doctor, Dentist or Nurse in the Army can ever make any claims regarding their OLQs. A similar system is in vogue in every Country. Further according to Geneva Conventions they are treated as non-combatants during war. 

The Boards for Commissioning of Medical, Dental and Nursing Officers are conducted under the authority of Para 109 regulations. The Para 109 speaks about the Constitution and Duties of Selection Boards (Medical).—The DGAFMS is responsible for convening Promotion, Appointment and Regular Commission Boards, as given in the sub rules. The Boards For Commissioning is constituted as per sub-rule (e), which reads as ‘Selection Board No. 5.—For selection .of candidates for grant of Short Service and Permanent Commission in the AMC and Permanent Com­mission in the AMC (Non-Technical)/AD Corps and MNS. The Board of Commissioning consists of DGAFMS, AG, DGMSs (Army/Navy/Air), DGHS and ADGMNS (for NOs) / DGDS (for DOs).

The Medical, Dental and Nursing officers are only given Basic Medical Officers Course (MOBC) or Initial Nursing Officers Course (INOC) of very short duration merely introducing them to the way of life in the Army. Even the women officers selected for branches outside medical services for non-combatant duties now have to undergo 11 months mandatory military training. Hence comparing the selection system of fighting arms officers with that of the AMC, ADC and MNS is incorrect. Regardless of the selection system and the training they have equal status with those officers who have undergone the Services Selection Board interview and full one year of Military Training. 

The Geneva Convention, 1949 (Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field), accorded the status of non-combatants to the Medical personnel. However the Article 22(1) of the Convention ‘grants the right to medical personnel (doctors, nurses, nursing orderlies etc.) to carry and use arms in their own defence, or in that of the wounded and sick in their charge’. Accordingly, the women officers serving in MNS were also given fire arms training. The Indian Army’s women shooters of repute even today are from the MNS, though some years back the fire arms training was stopped for the MNS officers.