Brigadier moves tribunal against army's court martial policy

A brigadier, censured for allegedly attempting to violate the modesty of an officer's wife, has challenged the army's court martial policy in the Armed Forces Tribunal, saying it violated Supreme Court judgments by not providing the complete report of Courts of Inquiry against personnel.

In his plea, Brigadier KP Chand said that in the Indian navy, any officer or jawan facing disciplinary action is given a copy of entire proceedings of a Board of Inquiry and even its findings.

In the IAF also, the personnel are given copies of entire proceedings but only if they are facing court martial.

According to army's policy, if a Court of Inquiry recommends further action against jawans or officers, the affected personnel are provided only statements and other proceedings during the probe.

"They are not given a copy of the entire proceedings of Court of Inquiry with its findings and opinion of the Court of Inquiry as also recommendations of Commanders in chain," Brigadier Chand's counsel K Ramesh told PTI here.

In the Brigadier's case, the officer was issued a show cause notice by the authorities on the allegations and awarded a censure by the eastern army commander. He was not given the copy of the findings of the CoI against him headed by a major general-rank officer.

In his plea, the Brigadier has said that "since the army authorities implicitly relied upon the very same findings and opinions of CoI, equity demands that I should also have been provided a copy of the same."

Ramesh contended that the policy of not providing the entire proceedings is in violation of the Supreme Court judgments.

"The Air Force personnel whose character or service reputation is affected by a Court of Inquiry cannot be deprived of a report just because he is not facing a court martial," the plea contended.

"If this application is allowed, it would benefit the posterity of the Armed Forces personnel for all times to come," Ramesh said.