The Army is making efforts to find a way out regarding the Supreme Court order last year decriminalising adultery and scrapping Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that penalised homosexuality, Adjutant General Ashwani Kumar said here on Thursday.
His observations came in the backdrop of adultery and homosexuality inviting severe punishment in the Army. Moreover, while the Supreme Court ruling is supreme, the Army so far is reluctant in implementing it to enforce discipline. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat some months back had also suggested that the Supreme Court order on decriminalization of gay sex may not be implemented in the Army adding such actions are forbidden in the force
Though stating that the Army is not above the law, Rawat during his annual press conference in January had said “we will not allow this to happen in the Army.” When asked about the apex court ruling on adultery, he had said the Army is conservative. “We can’t allow it to perpetrate into the Army,” Rawat had said.
Adjutant General Kumar, who is solely responsible for maintaining discipline in the Army and ensuring welfare of the personnel, said the Army is working out ways to honour the Supreme Court ruling on the one hand and maintain the ethos on the other.
The outgoing General said adultery and gay sex do not figure as separate alleged acts of indiscipline in the Army. Instead, any acts of moral turpitude or such actions are covered under section 45 of the Army Act. It defines any such action as unbecoming conduct and the guilty are punished accordingly.
At present adultery, generally known as stealing brother officer’s wife’s affection in the armed forces, is dealt with strictly and some officers over the years have been dismissed from service.
However, with women officer now joining the forces, adultery can also be defined as stealing affection of sister officers’ husband, Kumar said.
These acts invite severe punishment in the force, Adjutant General Ashwani Kumar said here on Thursday.
While the SC is supreme, the Army has been reluctant in implementing it in the force to enforce discipline. The Army Chief had some months back categorically rejected implementation of the order.
With one out of every five retiring army officer avail ‘disability’ benefits, army is looking to tweak its rules to prevent its misuse. On an average 70-80 officers retire every months and nearly 35 per cent of them are in low medical category.
The issue of disability benefits had hit the headlines when the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), under the Union Finance Ministry decided to levy tax on the disability pension for defence personnel in June.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while backing her Ministry’s order had placed the onus for the initiative on the armed forces. Her office put out an internal unsigned note on Twitter, which stated the “Response of the Armed Forces on the issue of taxability of disability pension states that the disability pension attributable to service conditions was being exploited.”
“This aspect is being exploited by those unscrupulous personnel, who have gained from disability benefits provided by the government to disabled soldiers,” the note said.
“Yes, I accept the fact that there are ‘impropriety’ by some senior officers in maintaining their medical records. And they were given due punishment for the offense,” Lt. General Ashwani Kumar, outgoing Adjutant General of Indian Army said .Adjutant General is the senior most administration officers, who looks after manpower planning, HR Policy issues, recruitment and discipline. Recently, one major general ranked officer who is the former head of the Army Education Corps (AEC) was court martial for falsifying medical records to earn disability pension and was sentenced to loss of 10 years service for pension. Besides, several other senior officers were awarded censures for the fudging their medical records to get higher monetary benefits.
“In view of such cases, army headquarters is tweaking its rules with bringing more checks and balances into the system. To regulate the medical board, now Maj General and above in last two years of service, will have to get their
medical done at the Armed Forces Clinic in Delhi or to nearest Command hospitals. Earlier they go to any nearest military hospital,” Lt. Gen Kumar further said. Very soon this provision will also apply for the Brigadiers and other officers also. Army headquarters has sent some proposals before the ministry in this regard for further approval. However, army headquarters clarified that not everyone (officer) with disability do to get its monetary benefits. On the issue of levying tax on disability pension, Lt. Gen said ,”Not everyone with the disability should be exempted and I feel there should be an upper limit for exemption.”
Issue of levying tax on the disability pension has been challenged in the Supreme court by several veterans. Sensitive issue of disability took ugly turn when the Army headquarters officially came out to back the decision to tax disability benefits. In a series of tweets, the Army criticised “personnel seeking disability, even for lifestyle diseases” for tax-exemption purposes and said it highlighted a worrying trend in the face of “security challenges to the nation”.
“Over the years, broad-banding and compensation awarded for disability with income tax exemption have led to a rise in personnel seeking disability, even for lifestyle diseases. The trend is worrisome and that too when the security
challenges to the nation are on the rise,” the Army’s additional director general of public information (ADGPI) had said in a tweet.