Rejecting the charge that they were a legacy of the British and against the principle of fair justice, the Centre has given a thumbs-up to summary court martial proceedings.
The government favours the practice to sack lower-rank army personnel to ensure discipline in the force.
“Summary court martial proceedings are intended to be the backbone of discipline to enable commanding officers to ensure command over their units,” solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam said on Tuesday.
A Supreme Court bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and HL Dattu is seized of the Centre’s appeal challenging a Delhi high court judgment quashing the dismissal of certain army personnel tried in summary court martial proceedings.
The judges had warned that army chief General Deepak Kapoor would be summoned to the court in case the government failed to file an affidavit that the practice does not violate the principle of rule of law and natural justice.
Summary court martial proceedings were resorted to in 1857 by the East India Company to quell the Sepoy Mutiny. Army personnel who refused to toe the company’s line were sacked or sentenced to rigorous imprisonment.
Subramaniam rejected that summary court martial proceedings were a legacy of the British and should be scrapped.
Under the practice, the commandant or unit officer not only acts as a prosecutor and inquiry officer but also as the judge empowered to impose imprisonment of up to six months and even terminate service.
However, the procedure is adopted only in case of lower-rung personnel such as sepoys, havildars, naiks and lance naiks and decisions of commanding officers are approved by superior officers. Since the decisions are also subject to judicial review, the charge that the practice violates the principle of natural justice cannot be countenanced.
Subramaniam said before subjecting them to a summary trial, erring army personnel are counselled and cautioned.
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