Event Report

The talk on the subject was delivered by Wg Cdr (Dr) UC Jha (Retd.), member of the USI Council on the 04 October, 2023.

At the outset, the Deputy Director General, Maj Gen PK Goswami, VSM (Retd.) welcomed Wg Cdr Jha and gave the overview of the grievance redressal system in the Indian Armed Forces. He enumerated the various constitutional and legal differences between the members of the Armed Forces and their civilian counterparts and brought out that how there are certain limitations placed upon the former.

Wg Cdr Jha began the talk by thanking the USI for giving him an opportunity to conduct the talk. At the beginning, he clarified that it is not his intention to criticise the Armed Forces but to highlight the deficiencies compared to the same institution of the other countries. He went on to enumerate certain instances where of ex-Servicemen who had to fight legal battles to ensure their proper dues and the other legal cases highlighting the buddy system, promotion of women in the forces and encounter deaths in Manipur.

The scope of the talk included: the need for a grievance redressal system; and its procedure in the three services; felt deficiencies in the system; the impact of the existing grievance redressal system on the Armed Forces; roadblocks; examples of the grievance redressal system from few other democracies and the recommendations of the speaker.

The talk began with the stating of the need for a grievance redressal system. Followed by the current system and its procedure. Wg Cdr Jha highlighted the Army, Navy and Air Force Acts and their various subsections focused on addressing the grievances of all ranks. He further went on to talk of the deficiencies of the current grievance redressal system, the Armed Forces Tribunal, the impact of the current system on the Armed Forces which included delays due to faulty processing of grievance application leading to frustration, low morale, alcohol dependency and in some cases even suicide and fratricide.

Wg Cdr Jha then spoke on the many roadblocks that reduce the effectiveness of the current redressal system. It included the over-reliance upon a ‘time-tested method;’ ego-based processing; wall of secrecy in processing and grievance applications being considered as an ‘adverse’ on the functioning of the command.

Further on, he talked about the Military Grievance System in other democracies such as the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, and Australia and what can be learned from them. As a penultimate, he gave his own personal thoughts on the issue citing military leaders such as Sun Tzu.

Finally, Wg Cdr Jha gave his own recommendations on the Grievance Redressal system and its overhaul which included ideas such as: a common policy framework; providing complainant assistance; a more transparent redressal system; need for a review of the legacy provisions; a website for checking the status of application and regular audits for its effectiveness.

The talk ended with an engaging and informative Question and Answer session.