Government considering common law for defence services

NEW DELHI - The government is considering a common law for the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force to ensure effective operational coordination between them, parliament was informed Monday.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony said the draft of the Tri Services Act has already been prepared and was submitted to the ministry for approval from the Chiefs of Staff Committee in August 2009.

“The act is under consideration in consultation with the three services,” Antony said in a statement laid in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

He informed the houses on the status of implementation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Unified Command for Armed Forces recommendations submitted to the Lok Sabha in February last year.

The minister said the proposal to establish a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), as recommended by the Kargil Review Committee (KRC), was “under examination”. The decision on this matter would be taken after completion of the ongoing consultations with political parties, he said.

He said the institutional support and infrastructure was already in place in the form of the Integrated Defence Staff Headquarters to support the CDS, whenever created.

Antony said the government was trying to build consensus on appointment of CDS and had taken up the matter with political parties, but a number of them were had not responded so far.