NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Defence has kicked off the process of drafting a common ‘Armed Forces Act’ to replace separate Acts governing the rules of the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The proposed Act aims to achieve “jointness beyond just the proposed integration of the services”. It addresses the need to have standardised rules, procedures and terminology across the three services. Command structure of the forces, control mechanisms and discipline will be common for the three services.
The new rules were in the stage of being drafted for legal opinion and no timeline had been decided yet, an official said. The Department of Military Affairs (DMA) under the MoD has set up a convening committee with representatives from the three services to present their perspective for the codification of the proposed Act. The DMA, headed by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Anil Chauhan, is aiming for integrated planning for jointness in procurement, training and deployment, including the creation of joint theatre commands.
The structural changes like theatre commands needed a framework of a governing Act, specifically the Tri-Services Act, an official said.
The new Act looks to harmonise laws and disciplinary powers to ensure integration among the three services. As a proactive measure, Parliament passed the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Act, 2023, empowering commanders of Inter-Services Organisations to enforce discipline across the services. This would be subsumed into the proposed Armed Forces Act, officials said.
With unified command structure-like theatre commands which is the proposed task of the CDS created in December 2019 on the cards, the Act will move the services away from their individual legislation to have a joint services framework.
At present, each service operates under separate legislations such as the Army Act, Navy Act and the Air Force Act, which can pose a challenge when the integration is achieved. As part of the process of having a new legislation, the armed forces today organised the Brig Justice DM Sen annual memorial lecture. The event brought together judges of High Courts and the Armed Forces Tribunal, legal luminaries and academicians on the theme “Military Law challenges in present environment and aligning it with the current realities”.
Former Chief Justice of India Justice UU Lalit spoke on stringent requirements of military law and how the trend of cyber-related offences and challenges require the forces to be future ready. Attorney General for India R Venkataramani spoke about constant upgrade with evolving constitutional norms.