Monthly Archives: August 2018

There is nothing in the Army, Navy, or Air Force Acts that speaks of any appointment, much less about its position in the chain of command, such as that of the Chief of Defence Staff. This can lead to a command crisis. The solution would be to bring in standalone legislation to do so.

On September 28, former Eastern Army Commander Lt General Anil Chauhan (Retd) was appointed the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). I do not know him and nor does this piece intend to cast any aspersions on him.

The objective of this article is to delineate the avoidable incongruity created by circumventing Parliament and through a modification in the rules and regulations. The Army, Air Force and Navy Acts constitute the governing law. Any change, let alone reform of the magnitude of creating the position of CDS, and its implications on higher defence management should have been routed through amendments to the principal Acts.

Nothing in these Acts provides for the kind of seminal changes effected through the notifications since 2019 — one dated December 28, 2019 and other dated June, this year — that institutionalised the CDS, and as a result, the appointment criterion stood amended. Section 191 of the Army Act empowers the Centre to make rules to give effect to its provisions. This rule-making power inter-alia extends to matters relating to removal, retirement, release or discharge from service, assembly and procedures of courts of inquiry, court-martials and punishments. There is nothing in this Section that provides for the creation of a position that de facto ostensibly supersedes the Chief of Army Staff. In the Airforce and Navy Acts, the provision for a CDS has been made by amending the requisite regulations, and not even the rules. Regulations, as a function of delegated legislation, are thus considered non-statutory in character.

Amendments to rules that do not take into consideration the scheme of the parent act have the potential to create legal black holes. For instance, Section 88 of the Army Act defines “superior military authority”. Where would the CDS fit into this scheme of things? Should he not be the ex-officio superior military authority for any disciplinary proceedings for the purposes of Section 88 (b), given that, as Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs, he exercises superintendence over the Armed Forces of the Union, Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence and Territorial Army, to name but a few.SUBSCRIBER ONLY STORIESView All

Similarly, in terms of the amendments made on December 28, 2019, certain rules including 14, 15, and 15A of the Army Act and the analogous rules in the Airforce and Navy enactments are not to apply to the CDS. Rule 14 provides for termination of service by the Centre on account of misconduct. Rule 15 provides for termination of service if the officer is unfit for service due to inefficiency or physical disability. Rule 15A allows the release of an officer on medical grounds. How will the CDS be removed from office were an unfortunate eventuality to arise? In Rule 16-A Sub Rule 4 the new provision inserted gives powers to the Centre to extend the tenure of the CDS till the age of 65 and nowhere is the process of removal delineated.

On June 6, another gazette notification was issued by the government amending the Service Rules. The amendment to Service Rules of the Army states that the central government, in the public interest, may appoint a CDS out of a pool of serving or retired officers in the rank of Lieutenant General or General. A similar change was made to the Navy and Air Force rules. If a retired three-star officer returns as a four-star, it does not really make the CDS primus inter pares, or first among equals, given his operational remit and statutory tasking. He is de facto a notch above.

There is also a contradiction between the extant service regulations and the appointment of the current CDS. For instance, the Pension Regulations for the Army, Part I (2021), classify officers into “Active List” and “Retired List”. Section 4 (ii) states that an officer is on the “Active List” if he is in the army before retirement and the list shall not include recalled or re-employed servicemen. Similarly, Section 4 (xi) states that an officer is on the retired list once he retires and he shall be deemed to be on the list even if recalled. Should the current CDS be considered on the active or retired list?ADVERTISEMENT

There is nothing in the Army, Navy, or Air Force Acts that whispers, let alone speaks of any appointment, much less about its position in the chain of command, such as that of the Chief of Defence Staff. This can lead to a command crisis, especially during a National Security Situation. The following extract from the press release dated December 24, 2019, proclaiming the cabinet decision on creating a CDS speaks of this ambiguity: “The Chief of Defence Staff, apart from being the head of the Department of Military Affairs, will also be the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. He will act as the Principal Military Adviser to Raksha Mantri on all tri-Services matters. The three Chiefs will continue to advise RM on matters exclusively concerning their respective Services. CDS will not exercise any military command, including over the three Service Chiefs, so as to be able to provide impartial advice to the political leadership”.

What happens if there is a difference of opinion on a crisis situation between the Principal Military Advisor (CDS) and the three service chiefs, individually or collectively? The short answer would be that the Defence Minister would take the final call. However, in strictly regimented and hierarchical organisations is such design abstruseness desirable?

A more elegant solution, therefore, would have been to bring standalone legislation before Parliament creating the institution of the Chief of Defence Staff, spelling out his role and responsibility and making consequential amendments to the other Service Acts, wherever necessary. It is still not too late to do so.ADVERTISEMENT

The writer is a lawyer, Congress MP and former Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting. Views are personal

Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, October 19

Correcting an anomaly in the interpretation of rules for enhancement of pension, the Armed Forces Tribunal has directed the government to hike the emoluments of an 88-year-old retired Lieutenant General with effect from earlier dates.

The Tribunal’s orders could have ramifications for other retired officers over 80 years of age whose pension enhancement may have been prejudiced over the years due to the “incorrect” interpretation of Ministry of Defence (MoD) rules by the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA).

In his petition, Lt Gen Gorakh Nath, who retired after 38 years of service, had contended that the MoD’s letter on the subject issued in November 2008 unambiguously stated that pension is to be enhanced by 20 per cent from 80 years of age, by 30 per cent from 85 years of age and by 40 per cent from 90 years of age.

However, while executing the letter, pension authorities used the phrase “on attaining and on completion” instead of “from”, which gave a completely different connotation to the eligibility criteria for grant of enhanced pension. This denied him enhancement of pension by 20 per cent for one year and then again by 30 per cent for another year, he had averred.

“It is more than clear from the terms of the policy that benefit was to accrue to the pensioners who have attained the age of 80 to 85 years and implementation of the word ‘from’ has been clearly used in the communication made by the MoD to the concerned authorities,” the Tribunal’s bench comprising Justice Anjana Mishra and Lt Gen PM Hariz, observed.

“The interpretation adopted by the PCDA, which is contrary to the policy as stated in the MoD letter defeats the spirit of the legislation so as to cause detriment to the beneficiaries, cannot be accepted by this tribunal as the correct interpretation to be adopted,” the bench ruled.

The Tribunal has directed the government to enhance the officer’s basic pension by 20 per cent for 12 months from the beginning till the end of 80th year of age, enhance the basic pension by 30 per cent for 12 months from the beginning till the end of 85th year of age, and grant six percent interest on the arrears payable to him.

PTI

Gandhinagar, October 19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of a new airbase coming up in north Gujarat near India-Pakistan border and said it will emerge as an effective centre for the country’s security.

Speaking after inaugurating the Defence Expo 2022 in Gujarat capital Gandhinagar, Modi also said that defence forces will release a list of 101 more items that cannot be imported.

With this 411 defence-related goods can only be procured locally, he said.

“This will give a major boost to the Indian defence industry,” he said.

The PM said this is an unprecedented DefExpo as only Indian companies are participating in it for the first time.

He said the air base coming up at Deesa in Banaskantha in North Gujarat will “emerge as an effective centre for the security of the country.

He also said that the exports of Indian defence products have increased eight times in the last few years.

The country has come a long way, as “earlier we used to release pigeons and now we release cheetahs”, he added.

North Korea’s military on Wednesday said that it fired artillery shots overnight into maritime buffer zones near the inter-Korean border as a “serious warning” over Seoul’s ongoing military drills.In a statement, a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said the North’s military launched a “threatening and warning” fire as its “powerful military countermeasure” against South Korea’s military exercises, reports Yonhap News Agency. The spokesperson also called on the South to immediately stop “reckless and inciting provocations” that have raised military tensions on the peninsula, according to the carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.The shots came hours after the North launched more than 250 artillery shells into waters off its east and west coast.The KPA official said the move came in response to a series of “military provocative acts by enemies”, citing the Hoguk military drills under way in the South. South Korea kicked off its annual Hoguk field training on Monday to hone defence capabilities to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. IANS

Fears are growing inside Russia that Vladimir Putin is preparing to declare all-out war on Ukraine amid speculation that the President could resort to a nuclear show of force over the Black Sea as his invasion fails, a media report said.Putin will hold an emergency national security meeting on Wednesday with the Russian Senate ordered to sit late so they can rubber-stamp any directives, Daily Mail reported. At the same time, his new commander in Ukraine – Sergei Surovikin, dubbed ‘General Armageddon’ – appears to be preparing the ground for a retreat from the city of Kherson. General Surovikin said on Tuesday the situation in the southern Ukrainian city is ‘tense’ and that people living there will be ‘resettled’ in order ‘to protect the lives of civilians and our service members’.“We are not excluding the most difficult decisions,” he said, Daily Mail reported.Evacuations got under way on Wednesday as Vladimir Saldo, the Russian official overseeing occupied Kherson, said that up to 60,000 people will be moved over the next six days suggesting the city could fall within a week. The administration is also moving, Saldo added, while vowing Russia would “fight to the death” to regain full control.The defeat would be the most humiliating that Putin has suffered yet, driving fears over how he might respond, Daily Mail reported. Escalating the ‘special military operation’ into an all-out war would hand the Russian leader powers to close the country’s borders, declare martial law, and strong-arm more men into the armed forces. Meanwhile, news that UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had been called to an emergency meeting at the Pentagon in the US on Tuesday sparked more fears that Putin could be preparing some kind of nuclear show of force, potentially including the first open-air detonation of an atomic weapon since the 1960s, Daily Mail reported.UK Minister of State for Armed Forces, James Heappey, did little to dampen those fears when he said the discussions Wallace is having are “beyond belief”. Experts have speculated that Putin may detonate a nuke at a remote testing ground or above the Black Sea to prove that Russia’s huge but ageing stockpile of warheads still works, Daily Mail reported.Increasing the unease is the fact that Russia is expected to carry out an annual test of its nuclear weapons within days in an exercise dubbed ‘Grom’, but has not yet notified Washington when it will take place

GANDHINAGAR, OCTOBER 19 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said India is looking forward to furthering its engagement in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to ensure the region takes its rightful place as the driving engine of the global economy. He said India is determined to take a responsible role and continue to work for the regional and global security of the IOR. Representatives of around 44 countries participated in the IOR meeting on the sidelines of Defence Expo 2022 in Gandhinagar. Singh said India is willing to work together with all the stakeholders to ensure a rules-based maritime border for the benefit of one and all in the region. He also said that interdependence instead of dominance is the only way to keep this important trade and energy waterway stable. He called for IOR countries to put in a collective effort to address the present and emergent threats to ensure stability in the region. The defence minister said India looks forward to working with the representatives of governments, businesses and academia of partner countries to promote cooperation and closer interaction among the nations seeking peace and stability in the region. Addressing the IOR + Defence Ministers’ Conclave, Singh said India “unequivocally rejects any hierarchical conception of global order” and believes in one based on mutual respect and the well-being of every country. “India is determined to take a responsible role and to continue to work for regional and global security. We have demonstrated our commitment to organisational as well as operational aspects at various bilateral and multilateral forums of the IO region, and look forward to furthering our engagement to ensure that the IOR takes its rightful place as the driving engine of the global economy in the near future,” Singh said. He said that sustainable exploitation of maritime resources will be an important means for sustained growth and development of nations across the IOR in the 21st century. “We must therefore ensure a collaborative effort in ensuring the maritime expanse of the Indian Ocean is peaceful and is optimally harnessed for ensuring regional and global food security,” he said. Singh said terrorism, “exported, supported or coordinated through maritime routes” remains a major concern, and “India continues to guard against the spread of terrorism by sea routes.”

I ndia does not believe in a hierarchical world order where a few countries are considered superior to others, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, addressing the 2nd India­Africa Defence Dialogue (IADD) at the DefExpo 2022. He invited African countries to explore Indian defence equipment and technologies, stating that India has emerged as a leading defence exporter in recent years. “We do not believe in making or becoming a client or satellite state, and so, when we partner any nation, it is on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect. Forging relations comes naturally to India, as we work towards mutual economic development,” he said. Africa, South East Asia and Middle East have emerged as major focus areas as India looks to emerge as a major global arms exporter. Stating that peace, security and development are inter­related, he said security is essential for enabling development in the region. “We have created a robust public and private defence industry. A defence manufacturing ecosystem has been created in India which has the advantage of abundant technical manpower. Our defence industry can work with you to fulfil your defence requirements,” Mr. Singh said. The IADD adopted a ‘Gandhinagar declaration’ as an outcome document. It proposes to enhance cooperation in the field of training in all areas of mutual interest by increasing training slots and deputation of training teams, empowerment and capability building of the defence forces of Africa, participation in exercises and humanitarian assistance during natural disasters, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.  India offered fellowship for experts from African countries through Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis. Mr. Singh termed India and African countries as important stakeholders in ensuring a safe and secure maritime environment, especially in the Indian Ocean Region while reiterating India’s support to Africa to deal with challenges of conflict, terrorism and violent extremism. Later in the day, Mr. Singh inaugurated Manthan 2022, an event organised by Innovations for Defence Excellence­Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX­DIO) of the MoD. ‘We don’t believe in hierarchical world’ Sleek chopper: The Light Combat Helicopter on display during the DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar. VIJAY SONEJI Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tells African nations that India can partner with them to fulfil their military requirements and contribute to training  D

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 18

In the third such incident in the past four days, the BSF shot down a drone carrying suspected narcotics near Chhana village along the International Border with Pakistan here late on Monday evening.

BSF troops posted at a border outpost near Chhana village first heard the sound of the drone around 8.30 pm on Monday. After they fired at it, the drone fell down.

In a press release issued today, a BSF spokesperson said along with one quad-copter of DJI Matrice make, a polythene bag weighing approximately 2.5 kg suspected to be containing a narcotic substance was also recovered.

BSF officials said alert troops have shot down three unmanned aerial vehicles in the past four days.

In the first incident three days ago, the BSF had shot down a quad-copter near Ramdas in Ajnala subdivision. In the second incident, the 22nd Battalion had downed a drone near Ranian village along the IB.

The BSF had recovered 2-kg contraband dropped from the drone.