News Highlights:
- Recently, The government introduced a bill titled ‘Inter-services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Bill’ in the Lok Sabha.
- It will empower designated military commanders to take charge of soldiers and enforce discipline, regardless of the service they belong to.
Key Takeaway:
The proposed Bill will essentially empower the Heads of the Inter-services Organisations to exercise effective command, control and discipline on all personnel of the regular Air force, Army and Navy and to persons of others who are serving in or attached to an Inter-services Organisation, without amending the respective Acts.
Key Provisions of the Bill:
- Overview:
- The bill will empower the central government to constitute Inter-services Organisation.
- Such an organisation may include a joint services command comprising units or service personnel of the Air Force, Army and Navy.
- They may be placed under the command of the Commander-in-Chief or the Officer-in-Command.
- Power under the bill will also be available to Inter-services Organisations constituted before the commencement of the new law.
Current Set up of Indian Armed forces:
- Different Acts of Parliament:
- At present, soldiers from their respective services are governed by different Acts of Parliament.
- They are the Navy Act of 1957, the Air Force Act of 1950, and the Army Act of 1950.
- In a current joint services setup, an army soldier commanded by a navy officer would have to be sent back to his parent unit for any disciplinary proceedings. The navy officer does not have administrative powers over the said soldier.
- Number of Commands:
- The Indian armed forces currently have 17 commands.
- There are 7 commands each of the Army and the Air Force.
- The Navy has 3 commands.
- Each command is headed by a 4-star rank military officer.
- Tri-service command:
- There is one joint command in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which is the first Tri-Service theatre command of the Indian Armed Forces, based at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India.
- The other tri-service command, the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), looks after the delivery and operational control of the country’s nuclear assets.
- There are also some tri-service organisations like the Defence Intelligence Agency, Defence Cyber Agency, Defence Space Agency, etc.
Benefits of the Bill:
- The government says that the bill will pave the way for various tangible benefits such as expeditious disposal of cases, saving of time and public money by avoiding multiple proceedings, and greater integration and joint manship among Armed Forces personnel.
- The bill will streamline the command, control, and discipline of Inter-services Organizations like the Andaman and Nicobar Command or Defence Space Agency and joint training establishments like the National Defence Academy or National Defence College.
Countries that follow joint Theatre Command:
- Various countries around the globe already have some form of theatre or joint command in place to bring better integration among their military forces.
- Notably, the USA was the first country to enforce a theatre command system with six geographical and four functional commands presently in place.
- Russia also started with the restructuring of its defence forces in 2008 and has four theatre commands.
- China’s theatre command system is said to be based on the US model and has “five peacetime geographical commands”. Chinese Western Theatre Command covers the region along the Indian border.
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Content Source: The Hindu Bussiness