Retired Lieutenant General
H.S. Panag, formerly a member of the Armed Forces Tribunal, has given
a remarkable commentary on politicization of his country's armed forces. He refers powerfully to recent actions by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the U.S. and Australia's Chief of Defence Force. Excerpt:
In cases where action is taken, the conduct of the court martial is so shoddy that it does not withstand the scrutiny of the Armed Forces Tribunal and the Supreme Court. A case in point is the court martial of the accused in the Machil fake encounter case — the sentence of the accused was suspended by the Armed Forces Tribunal. In the Dangari fake encounter case, the Supreme Court was deliberately misled by the government/Army to take over the case. They were well aware that a court martial was categorically time-barred under Section 122 of the Army Act. If that was not enough, the court marital too was conducted and stiff sentences awarded. The authorities knew well that it was illegal the accused will be acquitted during review by the Armed Forces Tribunal/Supreme Court.
Retired General has served the Army for many years. While in service he never spoke or commented about any irregularity in the legal system, functioning of court martial or otherwise. In the case of Machil encounter, the action taken by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) is under the AFT Act. Its power and jurisdictions are analogous in certain respect to the high courts in India. As regard the use of a stone-pelter as human-shield, necessary action was taken by the army. Nothing new in what retired general has spoken. General is just trying to come in lime light.
ReplyDeleteWg Cdr U C Jha (Retd)