The Parliament Standing Committee on Defence has recommended that the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control, and Discipline) Bill, 2023, be passed and enacted as a statute without any amendments.
The committee presented this recommendation in its report to both houses of parliament on Friday. The bill, introduced in Lok Sabha on March 15, was referred to the Standing Committee on Defence for examination and report by the Speaker on April 24.
The armed forces are striving for better synergy to fight modern-day wars, and as they transform themselves into a single tri-service unit in various domains, officers posted in joint institutions face issues related to command, control, and disciplinary action.
The proposed bill aims to address these challenges by bringing all personnel under one rule and doing away with silos. The parliamentary panel appreciated the bill's provisions and unequivocally recommended its passage without any amendments.
The committee noted that the Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel are currently governed by separate Service Acts, leading to complexities in joint institutions like Andaman and Nicobar Command, Strategic Forces Command, Defence Space Agency, National Defence Academy, and National Defence College, where personnel from different services serve together.
Under the existing framework, the commander-in-chief or officer-in-command of inter-services organizations lacks the power to exercise disciplinary and administrative authority over personnel from other services.
As a result, officers serving in these organizations need to be reverted to their respective parent service units for disciplinary or administrative actions.
The proposed Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control & Discipline) Bill, 2023, seeks to empower commander-in-chief and officer-in-command of such organizations with all disciplinary and administrative powers concerning personnel serving in or attached to them.