KARAN SINGH Vs. CHIEF OF THE ARMY STAFF

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER , an Ex -Havaldar of the Indian Army, filed this writ petition praying for the quashment of the Court Martial proceedings held against him with a prayer that he be treated in continuous service in consequence of the said quashment and all emoluments, promotions etc. be allowed to him.

(2.) IT is stated that the petitioner joined Indian Army as Sepoy on December 6, 1955, and rose to the rank of Havaldar in the year 1966 and in 1970 was sent for Commission to Jabalpur and passed the said examination. While he was Incharge of the stores he was relieved by Havaldar R. S. Ray on October 13, 1970. It is alleged that on the basis of the report against the petitioner in January 1971 a case under sections 409/411/109/420 of the Ranbir Penal Code was registered with Police Station Udhampur against the petitioner as well as Havaldar Bharat Ram, Vijay Kumar Gupta and Balbir Singh. All were tried by the C.J.M. Udhampur and were acquitted by order dated August 22, 1977.

(3.) PRIOR to the said event of prosecution before the Court of CJ.M. Udhampur, the petitioner was charged under section 52 (b) of the Army Act, for short hereinafter called the Act, for dishonestly misappropriating the property belonging to the Government between 1 -6 -1970 and 15 -10 -1970 and a second charge was also framed under section 63 of the Act as an Act prejudicial to the good order and military discipline. They were communicated to the petitioner and a General Court Martial, for short hereinafter named as GCM, was constituted by the order of the General Officer Commander -in -Chief of the Northern Command by his order may 5, 1973, and the petitioner was convicted by the GCM after trial with the following punishments: "(a) to suffer rigorous imprisonment for three years; (b) to be dismissed from the service." The conviction and sentence was confirmed by the General Officer Commander -in -chief of the Northern Command and an appeal against the same was also rejected. The petitioner thereafter challenged his conviction before this court in writ petition no. 105 of 1974. This writ petition was dismissed in liminie by the Division Bench of this court on August 3, 1974 and Leave to appeal to the Honble Supreme Court was also rejected on March 10, 1975.