Courts would generally be hesitant to comment on service conditions in the armed forces, but the Madras High Court on Tuesday did not hold back. It underscored the need for the Ministry of Defence to take a relook at service conditions in the Indian Army in order to arrest the growing trend of it being an “unattractive career option” for the youth.
Justice S. Vimala directed the High Court Registry to forward a copy of a judgment delivered by her on a writ petition filed by a Havildar to the ministry for the purpose of issuing necessary guidelines on the last leg of posting. The judge was of the view that officials should take an empathetic view and not disturb soldiers on the verge of retirement.
Veteran’s plea
The writ petition was filed by Havildar B. Sakthivel, who joined the Army in June 1994 and was due to retire in June 2020.
He had worked in Jammu and Kashmir, categorised as a hard area for the purpose of posting, for more than 10 years and was transferred to Chennai in April 2016 for a period of 36 months on his last leg of posting.
However, on August 20 this year he was served with a transfer order to Jammu and Kashmir and hence the present petition. The petitioner had cited the need to take care of his 76-year-old father suffering without a lower limb, his wife who was in the advanced stage of pregnancy and two school-going children for reconsideration of his transfer out of Chennai.
His plea was not considered positively.
Disapproving of such outright refusal to reconsider the transfer, Justice Vimala said: “The aberrations and egregious errors committed by the respondents (Commanding Officers), as in the instant case, may have a negative bearing and demotivate the future aspirants to the armed forces.”
Observing that managing human resources was vital to any organisation and the armed forces were no exception, she said the object of the defence ministry should be to recognise the nature of problems faced by soldiers and improve their service conditions so that the armed forces become a dream job for all bright, ambitious and motivated youngsters.
‘Unattractive career’
“It is reported that Indian Army has become an unattractive career option for youth nowadays. The Army already has been facing a manpower crunch since 2001. About 1,900 Captains, Majors and Lieutenant Colonels have prematurely quit as per reports. There is no shortage of patriotism in our country, but why is it that there’s such a shortage of officers,” the judge wondered.
Answering her own question, the judge said the reason for the Army losing its sheen as a career option was possibly because the youth of the present generation seek not just superior salaries but better service conditions and other compensatory packages too.
“If only the respondents are willing, can they motivate these youngsters to join the armed forces. It is said that the measure of civilisation is how the judiciary treats people who are at the dawn of life and those who are at the twilight of life and those who are at the shadow of life. The same thing applies to those who exercise power and authority such as the respondents,” she said.
