NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Centre’s decision to sack two senior naval officers — Commander Vijendra Rana and Commander V K Jha — for alleged involvement in the Navy war room leak case.
The officers were removed from service after a board of inquiry (BoI) held that they were involved in providing sensitive information regarding defence forces to outside agencies. The 2005 case involved leak of over 7,000 pages of sensitive defence information from the Navy War Room and the Air Headquarters, with a direct bearing on national security.
The leak of sensitive information came to light in May 2005 when an officer was found in possession of an unauthorised pen drive containing secrets of defence forces. An informal inquiry was held and Rana and Jha were found to be likely conduits. An BoI was convened and it was held that the officers had become undesirable and their sacking was recommended. The Centre accepted the recommendation and dismissed them on October 26, 2005.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar, however, found no merit in their petition and upheld the Centre’s decision.