Opinion: How the armed forces were deceived on rank pay

The Defence Minister A.K. Antony has referred the rank pay issue to the Attorney General, with the armed forces getting an opportunity to brief the AG on their interpretation of the orders issued by the Supreme Court last year, currently disputed by the defence ministry.

 

But this reference will not necessarily lead to a resolution of the issue, since similar measures taken earlier have failed to reach equitable conclusions.

 

For instance, in March of 2012, the defence minister had asked the Army and the Ministry to submit to the Solicitor General their respective views on a disability and war injury pensions issue arising from the judgment in the case of former Vice Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi, and directed the ministry not to file appeals before the Supreme Court in similar cases till the time the Solicitor General gave his opinion and the defence minister took a final decision.

 

 

Here’s what happened. Firstly of all, the ministry continued to file appeals despite the minister’s directions.

 

Secondly, the ministry asked the Army to ‘change’ the brief it had prepared for the Solicitor General.

And then the ministry made its own notes by subsuming and suppressing the analysis of the Army.

Finally, the Army was ultimately never provided a chance to present its views to the Solicitor General, allowing the Ministry to obtain an opinion that opposed the interests of disabled veterans.

And By The Way...

This is notwithstanding that the Solicitor General should have excused himself from giving an opinion on this issue because of a possible conflict of interest, since he had himself personally appeared against disabled soldiers on the same issue before the Supreme Court, representing the defence ministry.

As to rank pay, the issue was decided by the Supreme Court in March of 2010 in favour of commissioned officers of the three services, ruling that ‘rank pay’ was not to be deducted while fixing the salaries of defence officers.

What is Rank Pay?

For those who come in late, a running pay-scale was introduced for commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Brigadier (and equivalent) by the 4th Pay Commission to which a rank pay ranging between Rs 400 to 1200 was to be added for Captains, Majors, Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels and Brigadiers.

 

The notification in question stated that said ‘rank pay’ would be a part of ‘basic pay’ for all intents and purposes. Still however, while fixing the pay scales, the Ministry of Defence had deducted ‘rank pay’ from the ‘basic pay’ thereby resulting in damage to finances and the pay grades of military officers.

 

The thing is, basic pay is generally dependent on length of service. And a Colonel and Brigadier could easily end up (for example) with the same length of service. So this was also a measure to distinguish rank on the basis of pay grade.

Evidently aware that their stand since the 4th Pay Commission was no longer sustainable after the Supreme Court verdict, the defence ministry set up a committee to figure out the financial implications of the judgement, and then, in an unprecedented move, approached the Court asking it to take back its own order and hear the issue again.

 

This was not a request the Court was ready to accept and it ruled on the issue in September, 2012.

The defence ministry argued that implementation of the judgment would require rehashing of not only the 4th Pay Commission scales but also the scales devised by the 5th and 6th Pay Commissions. The ministry also said this would alter the payment of all consequential benefits to officers and their families, as well as, affect the benefits of officers who had retired prior to 1986.

 

But this was a given, considering the deduction of rank pay from 4th Pay Commission scales and beyond had been declared illegal. And as a result, the pay-scales needed to be upgraded through the three pay commissions leading to enhancement of the pay and status of defence officers.

 

The defence ministry was now left with no option but to implement the judgment. But they decided to play games with it, again, when they issued their implementation letter in December 2012.

 

Here’s what the ministry said in the letter, purportedly to implement the Supreme Court judgment:

….and to re-fix the initial pay of the concerned officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force in the revised scale (integrated scale) as on 01-01-1986 as per Para 6 of those instructions without deduction of rank pay appropriate to the rank held by the officer on 01st January 1986….

For those not in a terrible hurry to read the entire Supreme Court judgment and compare it with the language above, here’s what ministry did.

 

It changed the language used by the Court in its judgment, when it issued this letter.

 

While the Court had ordered re-fixation of pay ‘with effect from 01-01-1986′, the Ministry’s letter grants it to officers ‘as on 01-01-1986′.

 

This subtle variation makes all the difference.

 

The judgement which was to have a cascading effect on pay-scales after 01-01-1986 with effect from the 4th Pay Commission, continuing till date, now effectively applied only to those persons who were already receiving rank pay as on 01-01-1986.

 

The letter also states that no changes would be made in the instructions issued after the 5th and 6th Pay Commissions except to the extent of re-fixation necessitated due to fixation as on 01 Jan 1986.

This simply meant that there would be no upgrade of scales or change in the implementation instructions except that, for those affected officers as on 01 Jan 1986 who remained in service as on 01 Jan 1996 or 01 Jan 2006, their re-fixation within the existing tables based on the fitment formula would be affected while switching over from 4th Pay Commission to 5th Pay Commission and then from 5th Pay Commission to 6th Pay Commission tables, but within the same scales.

 

This was nothing more than a natural consequence of the stipulation of fixation as on 01 Jan 1986.

With a dry, half-hearted implementation letter, the defence ministry not only ignored the spirit and the character of the judgement but also its own commitment before the Supreme Court. The ministry has also tried to tacitly impose litigation on affected officers to get similar exactly parallel anomalies of the successive pay commissions corrected.

 

But no change in pay scale, status or even the scales after the 4th, 5th and 6th Pay Commissions has been notified.

 

Clearly, getting the intentional anomaly rectified is a tough call since it involves not only the correction of the scales but also the restoration of the status of defence officers which has been on a constant downward slide after the 4th Pay Commission.

Downgrade of military ranks

While the rank of Captain had been shown equivalent to Senior Time Scale (Under Secretary to Govt of India) of the civil services till the 3rd Pay Commission, it was suddenly shown below this civilian counterpart with effect from 01 Jan 1986 after the 4th Pay Commission, when the concept of rank pay was introduced since it was deducted from the basic pay.

And while there was no 4th Pay Commission recommendation or government order downgrading the rank of Captain (and subsequent ranks), this downgrade was surgically performed in a vacuum without official sanction, without authority and it continues till date.

The problem also remains that the defence services, especially till the last Pay Commission, were guilty of a failure to appreciate the impact of the actions of the bureaucracy affecting them. Some serving officers also never had the foresight to analyse how such issues would affect future generations as well as retirees, which would someday include their own selves.

 

The ministry leadership appears to be overly reliant on the diligence of its junior bureaucracy and the Defense Accounts Department, which portrays an attitude of opposition to military pay upgrades. For instance, most of the letters issued in pay and pension matters by the defence ministry are drafted by the office of the Controller General of Defence Accounts, including the letter issued on the rank pay issue.

 

It might not be politically correct to say this, but to get anything fair out of the bureaucratic retinue in the defence ministry, the armed forces need to be smarter and more artful in their pursuit of this issue. Serving officers need to remember that they too will be veterans one day and their interests are common to them.

 

Courtesy: StratPost

 

Author: Major Navdeep Singh

 

Major Navdeep Singh is a practicing Advocate in the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the Armed Forces Tribunal. He was also the founding President of the Armed Forces Tribunal Bar Association. He writes extensively at IndianMilitary.info and tweets under the handle @SinghNavdeep.

 

 

Air Force drops paratroopers to reach thousands stranded in flood-hit north India

The Indian air force is dropping paratroopers, food packets and medicine for tens of thousands of people trapped in up to 100 inaccessible towns and villages in northern Himalayas devastated by heavy monsoon rains and landslides over the weekend.

 

Amit Chandola, a Uttrakhand state spokesman, says the army and other workers reopened dozens of roads Friday by building makeshift bridges, accelerating the evacuation of nearly 62,000 people.
 

With the sun shining for a third day, thousands of soldiers intensified efforts to reach 80 to 100 towns and villages worst hit by the flooding and rains.

 

Chandola said the official death in Uttrakhand was 105, but expect that to rise as authorities reach areas now cut off.

 

Courtesy: Fox News
 

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Paraplegic to get commissioned as Indian Air Force officer

When an Indian Air Force Kiran trainer aircraft crashed near Hakimpet air base on August 28, 2011, it had also shattered the dreams of bright-eyed 20-year-old Rajkumar Herojit Singh, an Air Force cadet training to become a combat pilot.

 

Less than two years after that fateful accident, which left him paralysed waist down, Herojit will get commissioned into the IAF as a Flight Lieutenant on June 22, after successfully passing out of the Air Force Academy (AFA) at Dundigul near Hyderabad.

 

Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne interacting with Flight Cadet

Rajkumar Herojit Singh at his office in New Delhi

 

However, Herojit will not fly planes for the IAF. Instead, he will be an officer in the IAF’s accounts branch, for which special approvals have been obtained, according to the IAF officers at Air Headquarters here.

 

Herojit, once considered to be one of the best flight cadets in the AFA, had gone through a year-long medical treatment for the spine injuries he suffered in the air crash that left him a paraplegic.

 

But that injury did not shake his resolve to don the Sky Blue IAF uniform. While still under treatment, the cadet requested IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne to allow him to serve the force if his physical condition did not come in the way of performing his duty.

 

His request found favour from both Browne and Defence Minister A K Antony, who approved his commissioning into the IAF’s accounts department as an officer.

 

Herojit returned to training at the AFA in January this year and after six months of going through the specialist training for the accounts branch, he is now ready to get commissioned as an officer.

Earlier this month, while on an official study tour to the national capital, Herojit requested for a meeting with the IAF chief. Browne agreed to it and met with the young cadet to wish him the best ahead of his commissioning, the officers added.

 

Courtesy: The New Indian Express

Indian Air Force accepts C-17

India's First C-17 (Boeing)

 

The Indian Air Force (IAF) flew its first C-17 to India today, becoming the newest operator of the airlifter.

 

The C-17 will equip the Indian Air Force with humanitarian and strategic capabilities. Boeing will support the IAF C-17 fleet through an integrated sustainment program contract that ensures mission readiness by providing C-17 customers access to a support network for worldwide parts availability and economies of scale.

 

Boeing has now delivered 254 C-17s, including 222 to the US Air Force and a total of 32 C-17s to Australia, Canada, India, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the NATO members.

 

Courtesy: Australian Aviation

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Reform of Indian Military Justice

A lecturer at Yale Law School gives perspective on the administration of military justice in India and the role and impact of the Armed Forces Tribunal, suggesting interesting new measures to improve the justice delivery system.

 

Even from afar, it is easy to see that Indian military justice is entering a new phase. What are the pertinent facts, and where should the path lead?

 

 

The most salient fact has two aspects. On the one hand, Indian military justice – the body of criminal and disciplinary law that seeks to ensure good order and discipline and thereby contribute to national security, has been remarkably stable. This is good because it means that Indian military, air and naval personnel, both subordinates and officers up and down the chain of command, will know the rules of the road and what is expected of them. A less desirable aspect of stability is that sensible ideas that reflect experience both in India and elsewhere may be overlooked or, worse yet, encounter resistance.

That there has been significant change cannot be denied. Of particular note is the creation of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT). It took decades from the time the Supreme Court recommended creation of some kind of an appellate court for military verdicts and the time legislation was enacted in 2007. The AFT has already made its mark and one must think the Ministry of Defence and armed forces have taken due note of its existence and, more importantly, its work product. Time and again the AFT has handed down decisions overturning personnel actions and occasionally courts-martial for reasons that seem so perfectly obvious that one cannot help but wonder why the matter was not adjusted before it reached the tribunal.

 

The AFT has only been in operation for a few years, so its jurisprudence is far from fully fleshed out. Still, some suggestions can be made that could foster increased public confidence in the administration of military justice.

 

First, attention could usefully be paid to whether the AFT would benefit from greater guarantees of independence. Countries around the world have adopted a remarkable variety of frameworks for providing appellate review of military cases. Some rely on a purpose-built court, staffed by civilian judges; others assign civilian judges of the regular higher courts to the military court by rotation as part of their judicial duties; yet others have entirely military appellate courts; some have a mixture of military and civilian judges, with some of the military judges being lawyers, some retirees, and every combination.

 

Questions have recently been raised about the arrangements governing the AFT. Should it be constituted as it presently is, with a blend of civilian jurists who sit full-time and retired senior military officers, or would a different staffing concept be an improvement? It can be argued that since the function performed is a legal one, only those with legal training should sit, and that the provision of any necessary special background information on the military context of a case is the job not of the judges but of the attorneys who appear before them.

 

Caseload is another issue. Indian courts have long been clogged with challenges to military personnel and military justice cases. Given that, and the fact that full justice is tremendously hard to achieve long years after the underlying circumstances, it is surprising that not all of the AFT judgeships have been filled even now.

 

Equally concerning is the fact that the defence ministry is responsible for filling the vacancies. A recent decision seems to require that the AFT be moved over to the Ministry of Law and Justice. That is certainly an improvement over having it located under the very department that is a party to every single case. The current arrangement is self-defeating if one of the goals is to assure serving and former military personnel that they will get a fair shake. Even better, however, than simply shifting the AFT to the law ministry would be to establish a true court, totally outside the executive branch of government. Only in this way, I would suggest, can public confidence be cemented.

 

Related to this is the need to clarify appellate review of the AFT’s decisions. The legislation ought to make completely clear what the remedy is for litigants who believe the AFT has erred in a decision. Should such cases go directly to the Supreme Court, or should the parties have to approach the High Court? How this issue is most sensibly resolved is a function over the overall structure of the Indian judicial system, but whatever the correct answer, it should be made clear. Additional tiers in the appellate structure can detract from, rather than, improve public confidence if the result is simply further expense and delay. If anything, the need for prompt justice is even more urgent in the military setting than in civilian life – but that promptness should not be achieved at the expense of litigants’ rights.

 

Indians concerned with the administration of military justice might want to consider two further steps, one of which requires legislation and one of which does not. The statutes governing military justice remain service specific and do not take into account the many new insights provided by accelerating human rights developments and the practice of democratic states around the globe in recent decades. One significant trend is the transfer of the power to decide who shall be criminally charged from commanders to a director of military or service prosecutions. Numerous common law democracies have moved in this direction, with no discernible adverse impact on good order and discipline.

 

A second development that Indian policy makers might wish to explore is creating the office of military judge, so that courts-martial would more closely resemble the courts with which Indians are very familiar and which have earned a reputation for independence.

 

A step that would not require government action would be creation of an Indian Institute of Military Justice, bringing together practitioners and law teachers committed to improving the administration of justice within the armed forces. I helped to found such an entity over twenty years ago in the United States. It has contributed significantly to improved public understanding of military justice as well as to a variety of worthwhile changes, with more to come. It is critical that such an organization – a real “NGO” – be truly independent of government. An Indian Institute would be a very useful partner to the AFT Bar Association, which already exists but whose membership and functions are necessarily limited.

 

Military justice is of concern in any democracy. Where and how the boundary should be drawn between the military and civilian spheres can be a political and social fault line. No system is perfect or beyond improvement. A nation that casts as long a shadow as India does, can and should be a role model for other democracies, and restless in its search for ways to improve its military justice system.

 

Courtesy: StratPost http://www.stratpost.com/

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