Soldiers, Not Second-Class Citizens

Source:

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/soldiers-not-second-class-citizens.html

     
     Soldiers, Not Second-Class Citizens

                                        By
                                                            Deepak Sinha

Monday, 13 April 2015

The Supreme Court has taken the burden of hearing writ petitions against the Armed Forces Tribunal away from High Courts, and upon itself.

This doesn’t speed up legal processes but in fact takes away the soldiers’ right to appeal 

Both the print and the broadcast media have focussed on the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court, abrogating the repugnant Section 66A of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act of 2008 as unconstitutional. In doing so, the apex court has shown itself to be a powerful defender of the citizen’s fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.

Sadly, at around the same time, another landmark order received little media coverage. The highest court of the land turned approximately five crore members of the military community, that includes serving soldiers, veterans and their families, into bona fide second-class citizens.

In this retrograde action, the military members received no support from civilian bureaucrats in the Ministry of Defence, who — and this will certainly come as a big surprise to most of readers — are considered by most military men to be even more dangerous than the most fearsome militant they may have met!

 

     (COROLLARY: BABU of  MOD is more DANGEROUS than the most fearsome MILLITANT ever encountered )

 

 

In fact, one can go so far as to state that there are many within the military who believe that the damage that the civilian bureaucracy has inflicted on the military over the years, in every aspect of its functioning, far outweighs anything that any of our enemies has ever been able to do us.

                (are BABUs are NAXALs to AFS )

To be fair to the bureaucracy, senior officers of the military too have certainly played their part and supported them in their shenanigans, some deliberately for their own ends, but most because, they were unable or unwilling to comprehend the intent or ramifications of the issues involved.

 

        (  AVS COMMITEE's PLASTIC CARROT GIFT )

In this particular case, in an appeal by the Ministry of Defence, based on Article 33 of the Constitution that empowers the executive to restrict or abrogate the fundamental rights of members of the Armed Forces — an article that incidentally, is also applicable to other uniformed services including the police — a two-judge Bench in its order of March 12, has taken away the right of High Courts to hear writ petitions that are filed against the orders of the Armed Forces Tribunal.

It has, instead, directly taken upon itself, the burden of such litigation. You can be forgiven for believing that by its actions, the Supreme Court has ensured that members of the Armed Forces will receive speedy justice, something that many citizens can only wish for in this country.

Unfortunately for us, the implications of the ruling, as lawyer and tireless advocate for the rights of the military community, Major Navdeep Singh, has explained,

                       is nothing short of disastrous.

The Supreme Court only entertains appeals that concern a ‘point of law of general public importance’ involving the case.

The issue in question here is the fact that, as per the Supreme Court itself, ‘public importance’ does not include issues that are personal to litigants, such as matters pertaining to disability or to other kind of pensions, pay, promotions or annual confidential reports.

 

This implies that most petitioners will never be able to challenge any order of the Armed Forces Tribunal that they are dissatisfied with.

Joseph Heller of Catch 22 fame would have certainly appreciated the humour of the situation. Thus, in practical terms, the court has ensured that the Armed Forces community does not deserve what every murderer or rapist, or for that matter, what even Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab took for granted:

 The right to appeal against the orders of every court till it was finally disposed of by the highest court of the land.

 

 

 The Supreme Court has, in one fell swoop, demolished the cardinal principle of democracy — the right of appeal against what one may consider an unfair judicial ruling.

The tragedy does not end here because most cases before the Armed Forces Tribunal pertain to military veterans or widows and next of kin, none of whom are affected by Article 33, which among others was invoked to justify the ruling. Moreover, this ruling is only specific to the Armed Forces and not to others in uniform.

 Ironically, it does not apply to the bureaucracy that pushed for it, since the orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal can be challenged in the High Court.

We need to ask ourselves: What was the necessity for the Ministry of Defence to have appealed against High Courts’ entertaining writs by Armed Forces personnel if they were dissatisfied with judgements of the Armed Forces Tribunal, especially since other Union or State Government services, including the paramilitary and police forces, can continue to do so in similar circumstances?

Is this just another deliberate attempt, in a long series of such measures, to ensure that the military continues to eat the humble pie before the civilian bureaucracy?

 

(The writer is a  former military veteran and consultant with Observer Research Foundation)