Inter-services organisations bill be passed, enacted without any amendments: Parliamentary panel on defence

A parliamentary panel 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 39th Report (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) on the bill was presented to Lok Sabha on Friday and also laid in Rajya Sabha. The Inter-Services Organisation (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill, 2023, was introduced in Lok Sabha on March 15 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Defence by the Speaker on April 24 for examination and report.

"In summation, the committee, while agreeing with the provisions of the bill, in no uncertain words recommend that the bill without any amendments be passed, enacted as a statute and the committee's observations/recommendation be considered," the panel said in its report.

The committee understands that currently, personnel of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are governed in accordance with the provisions contained in their specific governing or regulatory Service Acts -- the Army Act, 1950, the Navy Act, 1957, and the Air Force Act, 1950, it said.

"At the time of enactment of these respective Acts, most of the service organisations were largely comprised of personnel from a single service i.E. Either Army, Navy or Air Force. However, now there are numerous inter-services organisations such as Andaman and Nicobar Command, Strategic Forces Command, Defence Space Agency etc. And joint training establishments like National Defence Academy and National Defence College, where personnel of the armed forces and other forces serve together," it added.

The committee in its report said that it also understand that currently, the commander-in-chief or officer-in-command of the inter-services organisations is "not empowered to exercise disciplinary/administrative powers over the personnel belonging to other services".

Only officers of the respective services are empowered to exercise disciplinary powers over the service personnel under their respective Service Acts, the report said.

"Accordingly, the officers serving in these organisations need to be reverted to their respective parent service units for exercising any disciplinary or administrative action," it said.

In view of the above, the Ministry of Defence has proposed to enact a new legislation that is the inter-services organisations (Command, Control & Discipline) Bill, 2023, the panel said.

"The Bill seeks to empower the commander-in-chief and officer-in-command of inter-services organisations with all disciplinary and administrative powers in respect of personnel serving in or attached to such organisations/establishments," it said.

The members of the committee have been mandated to present their report to Parliament by the last day of the first week of the ensuing Monsoon session. The session began on July 20 and is scheduled to end on August 11.

The committee found that "as per the Objects and Reasons of the Bill, the proposed bill will essentially be an enabling legislation, which will empower the heads of the inter-services organisations to exercise effective command, control and discipline on all personnel of regular Air Force, Army and Navy and to persons of other forces as notified by the central government, who are serving in or attached to an inter-services organisation, without amending the respective Acts".

Service personnel when serving in or attached to an inter-services organisation will "continue to be governed by their respective Service Acts", it added.

The examination of the committee is based on the background brief provided by the Ministry of Defence, oral examination of the representatives of the ministry held on May 29 and post evidence replies sought by the committee, the panel said in its report.