Delhi HC stays court-martial of Lt General

New Delhi: The Army’s plan to court-martial retired Lt-General Surendra K Sahni ran into rough weather on Friday after the Delhi High Court put an interim stay on legal proceedings against the former Army Service Corps officer. An Army court of inquiry (CoI) into massive irregularities in the procurement of “certain items of dry rations” for soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir had prima facie indicted Sahni, then posted as the director general of supplies and transport, a Major General, t wo B r i g a d i e r s and eight other officers in 2006. The scam involved the multi-crore purchase of around 1,000 tonnes of ‘masoor dal’, which was found adulterated and unfit for human consumption. There was also irregularities in the purchase of huge quantities of animal feed for the force in early-2005. The “disciplinary proceedings” against Sahni in the form of a court-martial (military trial) were, however, put on hold after he filed a writ petition in a civilian court. Sahni subsequently retired in 2006. The Army HQ had recently got sanction to proceed against Sahni, issuing orders for the convening of a general court-martial (GCM), with a five-member bench headed by a senior Lt-Gen, against him at the 11 Corps in Jalandhar from November 26. But in a breather to Sahni, the Delhi HC on Friday granted an interim stay on courtmartial proceedings against him after his lawyer Viraj Dattar moved the court. The lawyer said despite the HC listing Sahni’s petition challenging his trial for final hearing on December 2, the Army wished to go ahead with the GCM this month. Sahni, on his part, has argued that he was victimised, without being given an opportunity to put his stand before charges were prepared against him. The division Bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Manmohan stayed the courtmartial till January 7 after the gove r n m e n t sought more time to table a d d i t i o n a l documents in the case. “We are adjourning the hearing at the government’s instance. We direct that there shall be no court-martial proceedings in the meantime,” said the Bench, adding the “petitioner may not report to Jalandhar for the court-martial on November 26”. If the courtmartial had gone ahead, Sahni would have become the first-ever Lt-Gen, serving or retired, to face such military proceedings for alleged corruption. Incidentally, around the same time as Sahni’s indictment by the CoI, another ASC Lt-Gen, S K Dahiya, had also faced legal proceedings. Dahiya, who too retired subsequently, had been indicted by a CoI for alleged irregularities in the operation of the “frozen meat contract” for supplies to troops posted in Ladakh sector.

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