Revision as of 16:39, 3 August 2014

Armed forces, India: legal and service issues

Death-cum-retirement gratuity (DCRG)

Tribunal slams Army bias on gratuity

The Times of India 2010

When a bullet from across the border does not distinguish between a commissioned and non-commissioned officer in the Army, how can the government do so when it comes to grant of death-cum-retirement gratuity (DCRG), wondered the newly-constituted Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) headed by a retired SC judge. The tribunal said this discrimination in payment of DCRG was violative of Article 14 (right to equality) guaranteed under the Constitution

'Duty’: Definition of

Does a toilet break count as ‘duty’?

‘Soldiers on loo break still on nation’s duty’

Ajay Sura TNN

The Times of India 2013/07/26

Chandigarh: A soldier taking a loo break during work hours should be deemed on duty for the nation, the Armed Forces Tribunal in Chandigarh said on Thursday while ordering Rs 10 lakh damages for a jawan’s widow.

The widow, Daxina Devi, was denied compensation as her husband, sepoy Lakshman Kumar, was on his way to toilet when he died after suffering head injuries after a fall along the India-China border in Ladakh on August 15, 2009. Justice Vinod Kumar Ahuja-led AFT bench ordered the compensation meant for soldiers killed on duty in Kumar’s case with an additional 10% interest. Devi had challenged the decision to deny her compensation on hyper technical grounds and called it perverse.

CoI had declared death as casualty

Chandigarh: The Armed Forces Tribunal in Chandigarh on Thursday ordered Rs 10 lakh damages for a jawan’s widow after her husband, sepoy Lakshman Kumar, died after a fall on his way to toilet. The Tribunal ordered that a soldier taking a loo break during work hours should be deemed on duty for the nation.

The widow, Daxina Devi, had challenged the Allahabad-based principal controller of defence accounts (PCDA) decision to deny her compensation on hyper technical grounds and called it perverse.

A court of inquiry (CoI) had declared the soldier’s death as a casualty in an operational area. But PCDA denied Devi compensation given to soldiers who die on bona fide military duty, saying he was not on duty when he suffered injuries.

“It seems strange that the office of the PCDA is suggesting that a person should not even go out to attend the nature’s call and if he does, he shall not be considered on duty during those particular moments,’’ Devi said in her petition before the ATF in November 2012. “Such an approach of authorities is also against the very existence of human biology.’’

Death-cum-retirement gratuity

‘Different benefits for similar injuries is discrimination’

Tribunal Puts Army In Dock...

Dhananjay Mahapatra

Times of India

New Delhi: When a bullet coming from the other side of the border does not distinguish between a commissioned and noncommissioned officer in the Army, how can the government do so when it comes to grant of death-cum-retirement gratuity (DCRG), wondered the newlyconstituted Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.

In a major order that would assuage the long-standing grievance of the officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned, AFT principal bench comprising chairperson Justice A K Mathur and member Lt Gen M L Naidu said this discrimination in payment of DCRG was violative of Article 14 (right to equality) guaranteed under the Constitution.

A petition filed by the Disabled War Veterans (India) through counsel Aishwarya Bhati had made two major grievances — one relating to the difference in payment of DCRG and the other regarding computation of pension for a disabled soldier.

Bhati had alleged that the government takes into account the minimum payscale in the rank of the disabled soldier to compute the war injury pension to him and had requested AFT to direct the Centre to consider taking into account the highest pay in the rank for the purpose.

AFT agreed on both counts with the counsel. On DCRG, it said once the short service commission officers and the permanent service commission officers fight on the border shoulder-to-shoulder, they formed the same class and no further distinction can be made.

“Once they form the same class and they are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the enemy and if unfortunately both of them receive an injury and they are disabled then no distinction can be made in the payment of DCRG,” the AFT said. “We cannot give them benefit, but we can only request the government that this payment of DCRG on the basis of distinction between short service commission and regular service commission is highly discriminatory. We hope and trust that the government will remove this discrimination which is apparent on the face of it,” it said.

Coming to computation of war injury pension, the AFT said the cause of injury which disabled a soldier and cut short his career was beyond the control of the personnel and such persons should be treated fairly by being given war injury pension on the basis of the highest pay in the rank.

“We feel strongly that it is a matter which requires serious consideration of the government that a person whose career has been sacrificed for safeguarding the Indian border and he is to be treated in such a poor way that he is being paid war disabled pension on the basis of minimum of the scale of that rank,” the AFT bench said.

Housing: Married Accommodation Project

Armed forces, India: welfare issues

Jawans sans home and hearth

Married Accommodation Project For Soldiers Still A Pipe Dream

Rajat Pandit

Times of India

New Delhi: Leave alone supersonic fighter jets or complex ballistic missile defence systems, the defence establishment seems incapable of even providing something as basic as decent family accommodation to its armed forces.

Even as the defence ministry flounders, deadline after deadline of the much-touted Married Accommodation Project (MAP), touted as a major welfare measure for soldiers, airmen and sailors, is being missed with huge cost escalation.

Consequently, while officers have it relatively easy, a majority of jawans are forced to stay away from their families for prolonged periods, which is one of the factors cited for the high levels of stress prevalent in the forces. Incidentally, the 13 lakh-strong armed forces record over 120 suicide and ‘fragging’ cases every year.

MAP was conceived a decade ago to ameliorate some of the hardship faced by jawans since there was limited housing available for married personnel. Though the aim was to construct just 1,98,881 new dwelling units, in four phases at an estimated cost of Rs 17,357 crore, it was considered a good beginning.

But it has flattered to deceive. In May 2002, the Cabinet Committee on Security approved construction of 61,658 dwelling units under phase-I, which were to be ready by 2005-2006.

Eight years later, even after the number of units to be constructed was reduced to 58,391 in 86 military stations at a cost of Rs 5,329 crore, phase-I is yet to be completed. ‘‘Only about 42,000 units are ready till now,’’ said an official. ‘‘The less said about phase-II the better. Under it, 66,727 units have to be constructed in a compressed timeframe by March 2012. It will simply not be possible,’’ he said.

MoD, on its part, says phase-II will not be branched off to PSUs, like it was in phase-I. Defence minister A K Antony has ‘directed’ senior officials to ensure ‘strict adherence’ to the March 2012 deadline.

While 75% of the work in phase-II will be executed directly by the directorate general of MAP, the other 25% will be handled by MES (military engineering service), to avoid slippages and cost escalation.

But given the track record of both MAP and MES till now, the timely execution of phase-II, at a cost of Rs 9,938 crore, is likely to remain a pipedream. Moreover, no definite timeframes for phase-III and IV, under which over 70,000 units are to be constructed, have been chalked out in detail. MoD officials, however, said the government had ‘agreed in principle’ to combine the last two phases to complete the entire MAP ‘at the earliest’.

Paraplegic officers, injured in action/‘battle casualty’

Brig on wheelchair to be maj-gen

Razdan Was Paralysed Waist-Down After Suffering Injury Battling Militants

Times of India

New Delhi: In a stirring achievement, a paraplegic Army officer who uses a wheelchair, Brigadier S K Razdan, is all set to become a two-star officer or a major general.

While this is not the first time that physically challenged officers have reached high ranks, with at least two having even become senior three-star officers or lieutenant generals, the feat is possible only through steely determination and sheer grit. Razdan was a lieutenant colonel in the special forces when he participated in an intensive counterterrorism operation in Damal Kunzipur area of Jammu & Kashmir in October 1994 to save several Muslim women taken hostage by militants. While the women were successfully rescued, the brave officer suffered grave injuries to his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed below the waist. Razdan was awarded the Kirti Chakra, the nation’s second-highest peacetime gallantry award, in 1996, for his act of valour. The officer, confined to a wheelchair, later went on to become a brigadier. And now, Razdan has been approved for the next rank, a major general, and will ‘pick up his rank’ once there is a vacancy.

‘‘As per Army rules, any injury or disability suffered in war, counterterrorism or any other operation, which is called a ‘battle casualty’, does not come in the way of any soldier in his promotion boards as long as he is capable of performing his duties,’’ said a senior officer.

However, if a soldier suffers a ‘physical casualty’, that is, gets disabled in training or an accident, then there is no recourse but to put him in a lower medical category. He is allowed to serve if he can perform his duties but there is a bar on him getting promoted or attending some particular courses. Otherwise, he is boarded out.

Take, for instance, Lt-Gen Pankaj Joshi, who passed away last year. Commissioned into the Gorkha Rifles in 1962, he lost both his legs during a mine-clearing mission in Sikkim in 1967. But through sheer grit after becoming a ‘battle casualty’, he went on to command an armoured brigade, an armoured division and a corps before becoming the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Lucknow-based Central Army Command.

That’s not all. Joshi also became India’s first-ever chief of the tri-Service integrated defence staff in October 2001, established in the aftermath of the 1999 Kargil conflict, and retired after a fruitful tenure.

The 1.13-million strong Indian Army, in fact, has also had a lieutenant general, who was disabled, as vice-chief. Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi, who lost one of his legs during an operation as a young officer, served as the vice-chief in 2000-2001 after first serving as the director general of military operations, a strike corps commander, and then chief of the Chandimandir-based Western Army Command.

Purchases for Defence: India

Army chief warns against govt-to-govt deals with US

Josy Joseph

Times of India

New Delhi: For the first time since India began bigticket defence purchases from the US through gover nment-to-government route, a senior member of the security establishment has red-flagged them, calling attention to the serious pitfalls of it.

In an unusual reflection of Army’s frustration with its past FMS (foreign military sales) purchases from the US, Army chief General V K Singh has written to defence minister A K Antony, cautioning the government about the troubles with FMS.

Over the past few years, the Indian defence establishment has been using the FMS programme of the US government to carry out major defence acquisitions.

In these non-tender purchases, the US government procures the equipment on behalf of the Indian government from its military companies, and takes a commission for the services rendered through Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

The purchase of AN/TPQ-37 firefinder weapon-locating radars for the Army in 2002 was the first major deal that India did with the US under FMS in several decades. Ever since, India has been buying several major defence systems regularly, and the total contract value of US systems bought under the FMS deal runs into several billion dollars.

The Army chief ’s letter of caution comes at a time when the two sides are in the final stages of finalizing two major FMS purchases — one for the Army and the other for the IAF. The Army is proposing to buy 145 ultra light howitzers worth about $647 million, mostly for deployment along the China border, while the IAF is planning to buy 10 C-17 transport aircraft at a cost of over $2.2 billion.

Singed by the troubles with past FMS contracts, the Army top brass is now discussing the possibility of hiring corporate lawyers well versed in international negotiations and contracts to come on board for scrutinizing the upcoming contract for howitzers, authoritative sources said. These lawyers would ensure that the past troubles are kept away, source said.

Gen Singh is believed to have pointed out to Antony Army’s trouble with maintenance of a dozen weaponlocating radars bought from the US firm Raytheon. At times, up to two-thirds of the radars have been in want of maintenance, Army sources said.

Gen Singh’s letter to Antony is an unusual step, and was “forced by the troubles we have with maintenance of the radar systems”, an Army source said.

India has been using the non-tender, FMS route to buy big-ticket defence items from the US since 2002, when the radars became the first items to be bought under the scheme in recent memory. Over the past eight years, the military has carried out a host of acquisitions through the route. Among them were the $2.21 billion purchase of eight Boeing P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft, $962 million deal for six C-130J Hercules transport aircraft for IAF and $88 million for USS Trenton and accompanying helicopters for the Navy.

The IAF is currently in the final stages of negotiations for purchase of $2.2 billion worth 10 C-17 aircraft and the Army is finalizing the purchase of howitzers.

Tribunals (Armed Forces)

Armed Forces Tribunals have powers similar to high courts and handle military related matters.