Gallantry Awards of India: Wartime and Peacetime Series

Two Series, Six Chakras

The three wartime awards were instituted by the Government of India on 26 January 1950, the day India became a republic, and were deemed to take effect from 15 August 1947, so they cover the 1947–48 Kashmir war. The peacetime awards came later: Ashoka Chakra Class-I, Class-II and Class-III were instituted on 4 January 1952, again deemed effective from 15 August 1947, and were renamed Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra in January 1967. This is the official gallantry awards portal's account.

The counterpart column pairs the first, second and third award of each series; the Class-I, II and III names of 1952 make the pairing easy to remember. Peacetime eligibility is wide. The portal lets you filter awardees by Army, Air Force, Navy, BRO, para-military, police and civilian, and the 2026 lists include Home Ministry police and CAPF personnel. Wartime awards are not closed to them either: the Independence Day 2025 list of Vir Chakras included two Home Ministry personnel, both posthumous.

Order of Precedence and the Tier Below

The official order of precedence of the six Chakras does not follow the wartime and peacetime split. It interleaves them:

The lists the President approves go further down the same ladder. The tier below the Chakras for gallantry is made of:

• Sena Medal (Gallantry) for the Army, Nao Sena Medal (Gallantry) for the Navy and Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry) for the Air Force. PIB lists them straight after the Shaurya Chakra. A bar to the medal records a further act.
• Mention-in-Despatches (MiD): an official commendation announced with the gallantry list. It is a mention, not a medal.

Do not mix these with the distinguished service series (Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and others), which rewards exceptional service, not gallantry. The ranks of the officers who earn all of these are lined up on rank equivalence.

Firsts, Numbers and the Param Vir Chakra

The gallantry awards portal keeps a running tally of every award made since 1947. On its home page, as read on 11 November 2026, the counts are:

The Param Vir Chakra is the one count you must know exactly. In December 2025, PIB described it as India's highest wartime gallantry award, with 21 recipients, of whom 14 were awarded it posthumously. The facts examiners reach for are these:

• First recipient: Major Somnath Sharma of the Kumaon Regiment, posthumous, for the defence of Badgam in Kashmir in November 1947. Per his citation, he laid out cloth strips to guide Indian aircraft onto their targets, kept fighting with his arm in plaster, and delayed the enemy for six hours. The 1947–48 war and the airlift to Srinagar are on the 1947 war page.
• Only Air Force recipient: Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, a Gnat pilot of No. 18 Squadron at Srinagar. On 14 December 1971, outnumbered by six Sabre jets attacking the airfield, he took off and fought a low-level dogfight until he was shot down. Posthumous. The squadrons and fighters of his service are on the Indian Air Force page.
• Navy: none. Of the 21 recipients, 20 are from the Army and one from the Air Force, so no Param Vir Chakra has gone to the Navy. Its sailors and officers have won the lower wartime awards: see the Indian Navy section.
• Design: a circular bronze medal with the state emblem on a raised circle in the centre, ringed by four replicas of Indra's Vajra, and "Param Vir Chakra" in Hindi and English on the reverse. A bar would record a second act, but no Param Vir Chakra has ever carried one.
• Spread across the wars: 1947–48, the UN Congo mission of 1961, 1962, 1965, 1971, Siachen and Sri Lanka in 1987, and Kargil in 1999, which produced four, told on the Kargil war page.

On 16 December 2025, Vijay Diwas, the President inaugurated the Param Vir Dirgha at Rashtrapati Bhavan: portraits of all 21 recipients, in corridors where portraits of British ADCs once hung. Islands in the Andaman and Nicobar group also carry their names. The full table of the 21 is on Param Vir Chakra.

The Ashoka Chakra was instituted in 1952 but takes effect from 15 August 1947, so its earliest awards cover acts from 1947 on. Books usually name Havildar Bachittar Singh of the Army, posthumous, for Operation Polo, the 1948 Hyderabad action, as the first recipient. The official portal files his act under 1948, alongside Naik Narbahadur Thapa, and also lists an act of 1947, so sources differ on who was "first". The full roll is on Ashoka Chakra. The latest, in the Republic Day 2026 list, went to Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Air Force. PIB's list gives no citation; press reports link it to his June 2025 mission to the International Space Station.

How Awards Are Announced and Presented

The portal records that these awards are announced twice a year: on the eve of Republic Day and on the eve of Independence Day. The President approves the lists, and PIB publishes them with the full names. The decoration itself is handed over months later, at a Defence Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in two phases: gallantry awards first, distinguished service awards second.

The two most recent lists show what a normal year looks like. Note how the wartime series is absent from both.

The Independence Day list was also approved with 89 Mentions-in-Despatches (75 Army, 4 Navy, 10 Air Force). The Republic Day list came with 301 military decorations for the armed forces and other personnel. Neither list had a Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra or Vir Chakra: the wartime series is awarded only when there is fighting to reward, and the last time it appeared in a big way was the Independence Day 2025 list (15 Vir Chakras), whose acts are dated 7 to 10 May 2025. Those are the days of Operation Sindoor.

Posthumous awards are common. Bars record a further act: the 2026 lists include a Bar to the Shaurya Chakra for an Army officer who already held it, and bars to the Sena Medal. A bar is a repeat award, not a higher one.

Our note on the June 2026 investiture covers the three Chakras given that day. Other ceremonial occasions are on ceremonial traditions, and dates such as Vijay Diwas are on defence days and dates.

Guided Tour: Pages in the Gallantry Branch

Read the hub first, then the two child pages, then the battles behind the medals.

For the services behind the awards see Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force, and for the wider picture tri-services. Mottos and war cries are on their own page.

Exam pins

Asked in past papers

Gallantry questions are few: a statement question on institution dates, or "who got the Ashoka Chakra".

Practice MCQs (with answers)

1. The correct order of precedence of the six gallantry Chakras, highest first, is
   1. Param Vir, Maha Vir, Ashoka, Vir, Kirti, Shaurya
   2. Param Vir, Ashoka, Maha Vir, Kirti, Vir, Shaurya
   3. Param Vir, Maha Vir, Vir, Ashoka, Kirti, Shaurya
   4. Ashoka, Param Vir, Maha Vir, Kirti, Vir, Shaurya
2. The only Param Vir Chakra awarded to an Indian Air Force officer was won by
   1. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla
   2. Major Somnath Sharma
   3. Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon
   4. Captain Vikram Batra
3. Consider the following. 1. The Kirti Chakra ranks above the Vir Chakra. 2. The Ashoka Chakra ranks above the Maha Vir Chakra. 3. The Shaurya Chakra is the lowest of the six Chakras. Which are correct?
   1. 1 and 2 only
   2. 2 and 3 only
   3. 1 only
   4. 1, 2 and 3
4. Ashoka Chakra Class-I, Class-II and Class-III were renamed Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra in
   1. 1967
   2. 1950
   3. 1952
   4. 1947
5. According to PIB, how many of the 21 Param Vir Chakra recipients received it posthumously?
   1. 7
   2. 14
   3. 17
   4. 21
6. Which of the following was NOT among the gallantry awards approved on the eve of Independence Day 2026?
   1. Kirti Chakra
   2. Shaurya Chakra
   3. Ashoka Chakra
   4. Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry)

Where to Go Next

For the career side, read career in the Indian Army. Boards ask about role models, so read the personal interview guide and prepare one gallantry story to retell in your own words, perhaps from our Kargil explainer. Our NDA coaching batches teach defence GK with weekly tests and SSB training, and the CDS course does the same for graduates.