The orders issued by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) are increasingly being treated negligently and this has angered the principal bench of the tribunal. In a recent case, a bench of AFT Chairman Justice Rajendra Menon found that compensation was not paid to a soldier who lost his leg in a landmine blast, despite the fact that the AFT had passed orders repeatedly. . Comply with your decision in your favor.
This jawan, a resident of 15 Kumaon, was cut below the knee in June 2000 in a landmine blast in Jammu and Kashmir. He filed a case in AFT in 2017 seeking higher payment of ex-gratia amount as amended from time to time and it was unreasonable that every time the cut-off date for payment of ex-gratia was revised to higher amount.
Since the jawan was placed in service with 60 per cent disability, he was told that as per the extant rules he was entitled to only Rs 20,000 as ex-gratia. During the proceedings, the AFT had also observed that there was inordinate delay in payment of ex-gratia amount to the authorized category personnel and some cases were still pending. AFT had also observed that for the same category of personnel, different slab rates of ex-gratia amount were prescribed. The concept of ex-gratia for war casualties that remain in service was introduced in 2013 and differentiated the rates of ex-gratia for cases without justification from May 1, 1999 and January 15, 2009.
The AFT ruled in favor of the disabled jawan in August 2021 and said that he should be paid an ex-gratia of Rs 8 lakh as per the current rate admissible for combat casualties with 60 per cent disability. However, no action was taken on this decision, forcing the jawan to once again approach the AFT, which ordered that compliance should be reported by July 25, 2022, otherwise punitive action would be taken and personal Relevant instructions will be given for attendance. of officers. Contempt action against him for not following the order
Commenting on the delay in implementation of the orders of the AFT, the Principal Bench in its order dated June 1, 2022 said, “We are bound to pass an order of this nature because day to day, we find that the order is passed. Compliance is not being done by the Tribunal and the Principal Bench and each Regional Bench of the Tribunal are burdened with execution applications as on an average 20-25 execution applications are being filed in a day.
The AFT bench also ordered that a copy of its order be sent to the Defense Secretary and the Chief of Army Staff for necessary compliance. Advocates dealing with similar cases point out that it has become a routine practice in the Supreme Court to challenge the orders of the AFT on frivolous grounds and thus, delaying justice to the appellants drags the case for many years.
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Tour of Duty announcement postponed again
There was a lot of talk last week that a new system of recruitment called Agneepath/Tour of Duty would be announced soon. However, it soon became clear that the announcement had been shelved once again, with several opinions of retired senior Defense Service officers warning against the new method of hiring contractual soldiers. Sources say the government is adamant on its decision to introduce this new method of recruitment, but it has faced a lot of opposition from within the defense officer community, with many pointing to the regiment’s old single-class system. have done it. While there are arguments that a single class army is the way forward in modern India and that the British legacy of the martial race doctrine of regiments should be discarded, there are arguments that recruit troops from states such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and suggest. Rajasthan may see a huge decline if the single class regiment is dropped under Tour of Duty.
Meanwhile, with the amendment of rules to make retired lieutenant generals eligible for appointment as Chiefs of Defense Staff, there has been a lot of discussion on the selection of probable names. One of the names being talked about is Lt Gen Anil Chauhan (retired, former Eastern Army Commander. An officer of 11 Gorkha Rifles, former general late as CDS). Bipin Rawat Lt Gen Chauhan was considered very close to General Rawat. He has commanded 19 Infantry Division in Baramulla, J&K and served as GOC 3 Corps. A native of Uttarakhand, Lt Gen Chouhan works in close coordination with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval at the National Security Council Secretariat after his retirement as GOC-in-C Eastern Command in May 2021.