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Army: Process Vs Practice THE Indian military judicial system has, time and again, raised a debate in the Service and legal fraternity over its ability to remain fair, transparent and impartial and the need to shed its archaic bent and continuously evolve to meet the requirements of changing times.
While the conviction rate of military courts, be it a general court martial (GCM) or summary court martial, is very high, the rate of trial proceedings being subsequently quashed by high courts is equally high. Most of the courts martial are set aside on grounds of procedural lapses on the part of military authorities or the court itself. A GCM is an ad hoc consortium of available officers, untutored and inexperienced in the ways of rendering justice, picked out to assess and judge a compatriot accused of an offence. They have to rely on the advice of a legally qualified officer, the judge advocate, who guides the trial through its motions. Often, the court is accused by the defence of not granting it adequate opportunity to present its case fully, take on record its submissions and statements, or assuming the role of a prosecutor rather than that of a judge. The book is based on a sequence of true events in the author’s life and describes the course of the legal battles, including trial by four courts martial over a single issue, he had to wage within the service to prove his innocence and have his honour restored. Though his stand was vindicated and he got two promotions subsequently, he had lost five valuable years in the process. He was serving as the commanding officer of an artillery regiment, when he was accused to having wrongfully signed some bills pertaining to purchase of camouflage scrim netting for use during a major field exercise. He narrates his lone crusade against what he terms as the misuse of the military judicial system by some vindictive officers nursing a grudge against him and their attempts to "fix" him. The foreword is written by former Army Chief, General S. Padmanabhan who points out that there are many more instances in the Army similar to that of the author and they need to be resolute in their fight for justice. The book contains some useful information on military law and gives the common man a peep into how the military judicial system functions. Towards this end, large portions of the book are devoted to Army organisation, procedures, background information, legal terminology and annexure.
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The
stalwarts who laid down the military law and defined the rules and
regulations governing service matters had undoubtedly made a fair
attempt to ensure a fair and humane system. Though a well-defined
system with checks and balances, there still tends to be, as with all
such systems, some scope to "manipulate" it for vested
interests.