New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday defended in
the Supreme Court the practice of adopting summary court
martial proceedings to sack lower rank army personnel as a
measure to ensure discipline in the force.
"Summary court martial proceedings have been intended
to be a backbone of discipline to enable the commanding
officer to ensure command over the unit," Solicitor General
Gopal Subramaniam told a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari
and H L Dattu.
He rejected the charge that summary court martial
proceedings were a legacy of the British colonial rule that
should be scrapped on the ground that they are against the
principles of natural justice.
In this procedure, the Commandant or the unit officer
not only acts as a prosecutor and inquiry officer but also as
the judge empowered to impose imprisonment upto six months and
even terminate the services. However, the procedure is adopted
only in the case of the lower rung personnel like sepoys,
havildars, naiks and lance naiks.
The Solicitor General, who submitted an affidavit on
behalf of the Chief of the Army Staff Gen Deepak Kapoor, said
there was no scope for arbitary punishment against the erring
personnel as adqequate guidelines are in force to check any
abuse of power by the commanding officer.
Subramaniam said principles of natural justice,
including review of the decision of the commanding officer, is
done by a superior officer before the punishment is imposed.
He told the court that decisions taken by commanding
officers and approved by superior officers are subject to
judicial review and hence the charge that principles of
natural justice were not being observed cannot be
countenanced.
According to the government, before subjecting an army
man to summary trial, alternative means like counselling and
cautioning is resorted with the erring persons.
The Centre`s affidavit comes in the backdrop of the
apex court`s displeasure over the practice and direction to
the Army Chief to submit an affidavit to explain if there were
adequate safeguards and guidlines to prevent arbitary
decisions by the officers.
A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and H L Dattu had
earlier warned that it would summon the Army chief to the
court if the union government failed to explain adequately
whether proper guidelines are in place to prevent abuse of the
colonial era method of dealing with erring army personnel
In the present case, the Centre has filed an SLP
challenging a decision of the Delhi High Court to quash the
dismissal orders passed against certain army personnel tried
in summary court martial proceedings.
The Delhi High Court had in a January, 2008 judgement
directed the union government that the summary trial
proceedings should be conducted only in exceptional
circumstances and quashed the dismissal orders passed against
certain sepoys.
Summary court martial proceedings were resorted in
1857 by the then East India Company to quell the Sepoy Mutiny
when army personnel who refused to toe its line were sacked or
sentenced to rigorous imprisonment.
The apex court said since the affidavit was filed
before it only today afternoon, it needs time to go through
the same and posted the matter for further hearing to January
22.
PTI
