THE Government on Wednesday tabled a bill in Lok Sabha to empower commander-in-chiefs or any other officers posted in tri-services organisations with disciplinary and administrative powers in respect of personnel serving in them. At present, the service personnel of Indian Air Force, Army and Navy are governed by the provisions of the Air Force Act, 1950, the Army Act, 1950 and the Navy Act, 1957 respectively. Only officers of the respective services are empowered to exercise disciplinary powers over the service personnel under the respective service Acts under current norms and regulations.

This has a direct impact on the command, control and discipline-related issues in the inter-services organisations like the Andaman and Nicobar Command, the Defence Space Agency, and joint training establishment like National Defence Academy, the bill said. The Commander-in-Chief or Officer-in-Command of such organisations are not empowered to exercise disciplinary or administrative powers over the personnel belonging to other services.

“As a consequence, the personnel serving in inter-services organisations need to be reverted to their parent service units for any disciplinary or administrative action. This is not only time consuming, but also has financial implications relating to movement of the personnel,” it said. The Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) is India’s only integrated tri-services military command that has been playing a key role in keeping a strict vigil in the Indian Ocean.