Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, November 14

The Armed Forces Tribunal has held that awarding punishment to a soldier for sure offences after which discharging him from service for a similar causes quantities to double jeopardy, which is unsustainable within the eyes of legislation.

Based on this statement, the Tribunal has quashed the discharge orders of a soldier from the Punjab Regiment about 14 years later and directed that he be given all consequential advantages as if he had been to in any other case stay in service.

The soldier had been discharged from service in July 2008 after he acquired 5 ‘red-ink entries’ in his report for overstaying depart and remaining absent from responsibility with out depart.

He had been awarded rigorous imprisonment or imposed fines on 5 situations for a similar.

Referring to on an earlier judgement of the Supreme Court, the Tribunal’s bench comprising Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary and Vice Admiral HCS Bisht mentioned crimson ink entries alone can’t be made the premise to discharge a soldier from service and the general situation, that’s, the full interval of service rendered on the day of discharge and that he was about to amass the qualifying service for grant of pension, also needs to have been taken under consideration.

The soldier had contended that he had accomplished 12 years and eight months of service on the time of discharge and was about to finish pensionable service in lower than two years, however this had not been considered by the authorities when passing his discharge orders.

Though he didn’t deny the aforesaid offences, he averred that they weren’t of such a critical nature that discharge from service was the one possibility accessible with the authorities.

The Tribunal held that overstaying depart or absence from responsibility typically occurs attributable to compelling household circumstances or hazards of military service and he was duly punished for a similar.

The Tribunal additionally noticed that punishment for the mentioned offences may be awarded by the competent authority on the premise of an inquiry, however the report on this case was silent as as to if a courtroom martial was convened and inquiry carried out whereas awarding the punishment.

Further, neither any present trigger discover issued to the soldier or a reply to it was introduced on report.