SC asks army chief to explain summary court martial trials

The Supreme Court today frowned upon the practice of adopting summary court martial proceedings to sack lower rank army personnel and directed the chief of the army staff general Deepak Kapoor to explain if there are any guidelines to prevent its abuse.

A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and HL Dattu at one stage threatened to summon the army chief to the court as 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.

However, the court later relented and directed Kapoor to file an affidavit within three weeks. Summary court martial proceedings were resorted in 1857 by the then East India Company to quell the Sepoy Mutiny when army personnel were sacked or sentenced to rigorous imprisonment those sepoys who refused to toe their line.

In this procedure, the Commandant or the unit officer not only acts as a prosecutor and investigator but also is 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 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. Aggrieved, the Centre filed the SLP in the apex court.