‘Summary court marshall not illegal’
5 Nov 2012 9:01 AM IST
There is no legal infirmity if an army personnel is dismissed in summary court martial proceedings conducted by a commanding officer who also issues the charge sheet against him, the Supreme Court has said.
‘There is no violation of the principle of natural justice. No illegality has been committed in convening the summary court martial by the commanding officer nor there is any illegality in the conduct of summary court martial,’ said the apex court bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Anil R. Dave in a recent judgment.
The court said this while addressing the challenge about the competence of an accused army man’s commanding officer, who signed and issued the charge sheet, to convene and conduct the summary court martial proceedings. The question arose during the hearing on the central government’s appeal challenging the two concurring judgments of the Gauhati HC 7 Sep, ‘06, and 28 Aug, ‘08, setting aside the dismissal of washerman/rifleman Dinesh Prasad.
The HC held that the disciplinary proceedings were vitiated by the likelihood of bias and suffered from the breach of the principle of natural justice because the commanding officer who had issued the charge sheet also presided over the summary court martial which dismissed Prasad. Referring to the rules dealing with court martial proceedings, the apex court said commanding officer of the accused or of the corps to which the accused belonged was not qualified for serving on general court martial or district court martial, two different types of court martial proceedings.
‘There is no violation of the principle of natural justice. No illegality has been committed in convening the summary court martial by the commanding officer nor there is any illegality in the conduct of summary court martial,’ said the apex court bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Anil R. Dave in a recent judgment.
The court said this while addressing the challenge about the competence of an accused army man’s commanding officer, who signed and issued the charge sheet, to convene and conduct the summary court martial proceedings. The question arose during the hearing on the central government’s appeal challenging the two concurring judgments of the Gauhati HC 7 Sep, ‘06, and 28 Aug, ‘08, setting aside the dismissal of washerman/rifleman Dinesh Prasad.
The HC held that the disciplinary proceedings were vitiated by the likelihood of bias and suffered from the breach of the principle of natural justice because the commanding officer who had issued the charge sheet also presided over the summary court martial which dismissed Prasad. Referring to the rules dealing with court martial proceedings, the apex court said commanding officer of the accused or of the corps to which the accused belonged was not qualified for serving on general court martial or district court martial, two different types of court martial proceedings.
Next Story
