New Delhi, Oct 20: Twenty-six years after an Army havildar was reduced to the ranks and dismissed from service by a Summary Court Martial (SCM), the Delhi High Court has quashed the sentence after holding that there were no well-articulated reasons to convene an SCM and taking recourse to the same was not justifiable or borne out from the records.
The high court’s bench comprising Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Amit Sharma ruled that SCM in the present case could not have been convened and the authorities failed to demonstrate that there were grave reasons for immediate action, and the holding SCM, despite other alternatives being available, was absolutely necessary or that the case was not covered by any of the other alternatives under the Army Act.
The bench said that the power to hold an SCM is a drastic power, which would be exercised in a situation where it is absolutely imperative that an immediate action is required, as the same being fundamental principle of law.
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