On Wednesday, 15^th March 2023, the Defence Ministry tabled a bill in Parliament that will empower the commander heading the tri-services organization with theatre commands for ensuring discipline and effective discharge of duties.

The push for theaterisation has been endeavoured by General Anil Chauhan who, in September 2022, took over as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) although the impetus came after his predecessor, General Bipin Rawat who, in December 2021, died in an unfortunate helicopter crash. Theatre commands entailing a single commander leading the men and women officers from the three armed forces are expected to be notified soon and are the best use of the military’s resources to fight future wars. During the ongoing second leg of the Budget session, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is all set to present the Bill in Lok Sabha.

Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control, and Discipline) Bill

The new bill called the ‘Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control, and Discipline) Bill, tabled by Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in the Lok Sabha, is a long-awaited military reform, principally following the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

Once the Bill is passed, it would authorize a commander-in-chief/officer-in-command of an inter-services organisation to practise disciplinary powers over personnel of any service who are serving under/are attached to “his” command. The bill uses the pronoun “his” while referring to the commanding officers rather than being gender neutral, although the armed forces have now allowed women to take over command roles.

The theaterisation model seeks to set up 4 integrated commands that are two land-centric theatres, an air defence command and a maritime theatre command. However, this is being reworked on the reservations of the Indian Air Force about the joint structures that were earlier taken into consideration. The armed forces have 17 single-service commands pan India. The army and air force have each 7 commands whilst the navy has 3. Creating theatres would lead to the merging of the existing commands.

Limitations in the current legal framework

Currently, Air Force, Army, and Navy service personnel are governed by the Air Force Act of 1950, the Army Act of 1950, and the Navy Act of 1957 respectively. Under these acts, officers can exercise disciplinary powers only over personnel from their own service which can vary in terms of the quantum of punishment under their respective individual service Acts.

The Commander-in-Chief/Officer-in-Command of such organisations is not responsible to exercise disciplinary or administrative powers over the personnel belonging to other services. The problem becomes even more cumbersome when the disciplinary or administrative proceedings arise from the same set of circumstances but involve personnel belonging to different services, the government said. As a consequence, the personnel serving in inter-service organisations need to be reverted to their parent service units for any disciplinary or administrative action that impedes the expeditious disposal of cases, thereby affecting the standard of discipline.

This is not only time-consuming but also has financial implications regarding the movement of the personnel. This current limitation has a direct impact on the command, control and discipline-related issues in the inter-services organisations like the Andaman and Nicobar Command, the Strategic Forces Command, the Defence Space Agency, and joint training establishments like National Defence Academy, National Defence College, the bill said.

The timing of the introduction of this bill is significant when the government is working on setting up inter-services organisations. After 22 years of introducing tri-services command this bill will facilitate momentum in theaterisation drive.