The South Western Command of the Indian Army was established on 15 April 2005 and became fully operational on 15 August 2005. It was established in response to the emerging threats and opportunities on the Western Indo-Pak border and is headquartered at Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Lieutenant General Mohit Malhotra is the present South Western Army Commander who took over on 1 July 2026.
History and Role The South Western Command of the Indian Army was formally raised on 15 April 2005 as the seventh operational command, with its headquarters established at Jaipur Military Station in Rajasthan with Lieutenant General Krishnamurthy Nagaraj taking over as the first General Officer Commanding-in-Chief. This creation involved carving out sectors from the existing Western Command to enhance dedicated oversight of the arid western frontier, responding to evolving security dynamics along the Indo-Pak border. The South Western Command is operationally responsible for the defence of Southern Punjab and Northern Rajasthan.
Structure Currently, the South Western Command has been assigned operational units under:- X Corps and 42nd Artillery Division. The command in total has following units under its belt:- 3 infantry divisions (1 for Mountain warfare), 1 armoured division, 1 artillery division, 2 Reorganised Army Plains Infantry Division (RAPID), 1 armoured brigade, 1 Air-defence brigade, and 1 engineering brigade.
In 2021, except the 33 Armoured Division all the units of I Corps was transferred to Northern Command to focus on the Sino-Indian border at Ladakh. Structure of South-Western CommandInsigniaCorpCorp HQGeneral Officer CommandingAssigned UnitsUnit HQX Corps (Chetak Corps)Bathinda, PunjabLt Gen Vikrant Suresh Deshpande16 Infantry DivisionSri Ganganagar, Rajasthan18 RAPID DivisionKota, Rajasthan24 RAPID DivisionBikaner, Rajasthan6 (Independent) Armoured BrigadeBhatinda, Punjab615 Air-defence BrigadeAgra, Uttar Pradesh471 Engineering BrigadeN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A42 Artillery DivisionJaipur, RajasthanN/AN/AN/AN/A33 Armoured DivisionHisar, Haryana
List of GOC-in-C of South Western Command The following table chronicles the appointees as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South Western Command. S.NoRank NamePortrait Assumed office Left office Unit of Commission References1Lieutenant GeneralKrishnamurthy Nagaraj15 April 200531 July 2006Maratha Light Infantry2Parmendra Kumar Singh1 August 200631 July 2008Regiment of Artillery3Chanroth Kunnumal Suchindra Sabu1 September 200830 November 2010Regiment of Artillery4Shri Krishna Singh1 December 201031 October 20118th Gorkha Rifles5Gyan Bhushan1 November 201131 December 2013Mahar Regiment6Arun Kumar Sahni1 January 201431 January 2016Regiment of Artillery7Sarath Chand1 February 201612 January 2017Garhwal Rifles8Abhay Krishna25 January 201731 July 2017Rajputana Rifles9Cherish Mathson1 August 201731 August 2019Garhwal Rifles10Alok Singh Kler1 September 201931 March 202168 Armoured Regiment11Amardeep Singh Bhinder1 April 202128 February 2023The Deccan Horse12B. S. Raju1 March 202331 October 2023Jat Regiment13Dhiraj Seth1 November 202330 June 20242nd Lancers (Gardner's Horse)14Manjinder Singh1 July 202430 June 2026Madras Regiment15Mohit Malhotra1 July 2026Incumbent47 Armoured Regiment Notes 1.Later promoted to the rank of General and to the post of Chief of the Army Staff.
References