Junior commissioned officer

Junior commissioned officer (JCO) is a group of military ranks which is higher than havildar (non-commissioned officer) and lower than lieutenant (commissioned officer). The term is only used by Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.^[1] Senior havildars are promoted to JCO rank on the basis of merit and seniority, restricted by the number of vacancies.^[2] JCOs are treated as a separate class and hold additional privileges. Primarily the term was associated with armies but since the 2000s India's and Pakistan's navies and air forces are using the term to indicate their chief petty officers and warrant officers.

The Indian Army has recruited Gurkha soldiers from Nepal since the 19th century and separate Gurkha regiments were created for them, the Gurkha soldiers got same ranks as other Indian soldiers; the modern Nepal Army officially used the Indian Army rank system for their soldiers in the 1960s through a series of reorganizations and the JCO term has been used by them from then.^[3] After the secession of East Pakistan in 1971, the Bangladesh Army inherited the JCO rank system from the Pakistan Army though since the early 2000s the army has used the warrant officer terms.

The pay scale for Indian Naib Subedar, Subedar and Subedar major rank is pay levels 6, 7 and 8 (Respectively)