Officers and enrolled persons: the statute that raises India's part-time army

Background

Alongside the Regular Army, India keeps a force of civilians who train and serve for limited periods, and that force exists because of the Territorial Army Act, 1948. The Act, which came in the year after independence, says plainly that its purpose is to provide for the constitution of a Territorial Army. It applies to the whole of India and to every class of person in that Army, wherever they happen to be. Under section 3 an army of that designation is to be raised and maintained, and the Central Government can create as many units as it thinks fit, or disband and reconstitute any of them. The Act recognises only two classes of people in the force: officers, and enrolled persons. Officers themselves fall into two classes, both holding commissions granted by the President, with ranks matching those of the Regular Army. The Act defines the Regular Army as officers and other ranks liable to render continuous military service under the Army Act, 1950. It also lets the Central Government declare an undertaking supplying power, light, gas, water, transport or public sanitation to be a public utility service, after which its employees become liable for service in the Territorial Army.