JUSTICE IN THE INDIAN ARMY
The recent revelations in the press, regarding directions issued by various high courts, has brought out the glaring discrepancies in the administration of justice in the Indian Army. Lack of awareness and refusal to up-date the military jurisprudence with the evolving times and the continuing hold of archaic rules and regulations framed by an occupying force, has besmirched the reputation of an otherwise valiant army whose members, devoid of any effective machinery to seek redressal of their grievances are driven to the wall in the critical period of their lives, resort to suicides.
Take the recent case of Lt.Gen.Dahiya, Commandant of ASC Centre and College at Bangalore, the top most officer in the ASC. A court of enquiry seems to have been held in Oct.2005, regarding some alleged irregularities in the operation of frozen meat contract .The Delhi High Court has held that the enquiry violated the full opportunity provisions of the Army act of 1950, so far he was not extended the right to adduce evidence in his defence, and also in regard to his right to demand copies of documents forming part of the enquiry. The honourable court has quashed the proceedings of the military court of enquiry and the consequent punishment imposed on him. Due to the ill conceived action of the authorities , the General lost the opportunity to be considered for promotion to the post of Director General of Supply and Transport which had fallen vacant since july,2006 .Besides, the ignominy and the mental torture the General would have undergone during this prolonged period, remains un-compensated. If this be the case in regard to a Lt.General in the army, who can command a wealth of resources ; consider the case of another junior officer or a Sepoy if he had been condemned to similar fate.
In a similar case recently brought to the notice of the Defence Minister, a senior Colonel with more than 30 years of un-blemished service in the Army , was attached to an armoured brigade in Jhansi with the avowed intention of disciplinary proceedings against him since April, 2007. He had just then returned after commanding a battalion in forward area (J & K ). During his earlier posting in Babina (U.P.) as the commanding officer of 5221 ASC( M.T). Battalion in 2004, one of the companies under the command of a Major was stationed at Naseerabad in Rajasthan and the staff under him (officers,J.C.Os,and other ranks) had indulged in fraudulent sale of military diesel by fudging records pertaining to driver training exrcises and were duly apprehended and later court-martialled .The Colonel, being the commanding officer of the battalion, appeared as the prosecution witness, deposed against the accused and facilitated conviction of the guilty persons.Other than having been a commanding Officer of a battalion situated 600 kms.away from his place of duty, and having diligently discharged all the statutory duties,he had no nexus with the perpetration of the malafide actions and no court of enquiry ever apportioned any blame on the officer. Now after a lapse of three years, and after completing another tenure of duty as commanding Officer of another battalion, he is arbitrarily confined to Jhansi and extra-legal enquiry conducted, producing previously convicted persons, obtained from civil prison, whose defence submissions at their respective trials to transfer blame on other than themselves. He has not been given any legal papers or records.He has been consistently refused leave for the past 6 months,even un-able to attend to his ailing 75 year old mother, or process the bank papers of his son, going abroad for higher studies let alone be with his wife. The officer had gone in to deep depression with attendant medical complications and when his wife went to see him and obtain appropriate medical assistance,she was ordered by the Brigade commander to be despatched back home. God save our army ! If the Defence Minister is particular about causes of suicides in the army, he need not look afar. It is there in the present system, that grants un-fettered power and lack of accountability which enables malafide exercise of power on their subordinates. An effective machinery to redress genuine grievances of the victims and their families,with a prescribed dead-line at every stage of consideration is an immediate prerogative of every Indian soldier who had come forward to lay down his life in the defence of the motherland.
© Krishnan Bala., all rights reserved.
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