Parliamentary panel urges defence ministry to make selection process for gallantry awards more transparent

New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has asked the defence ministry to immediately streamline the selection process to confer gallantry awards to defence personnel, insisting that the exercise must be transparent.

The recommendation by the Committee on Petitions of the Lok Sabha came after an alleged lapse by the then authorities concerned in recognising sacrifices of an armyman during the Indo-Pak war in 1965 was brought to its notice.

In a representation to the panel, the son of late Major Mohan Singh had mentioned that his father died while fighting the enemy during the 1965 war but his sacrifice was not attributed to death in action by the Army, depriving him of the gallantry award.

The parliamentary panel asked the defence ministry to undertake a fresh exercise on the basis of available records to determine whether there was any lapse in recognising the “martyrdom” of Singh as ‘battle casualty’ attributable to military service with effect from 1965.

The petitioner, Brigadier (retired) NB Singh has also stated that after almost 50 years, the Army headquarters has acknowledged his father’s sacrifice and “conceded” his death as a ‘Battle Field Casualty’.

The committee recommended to the defence ministry to take immediate remedial measures to streamline the selection process for gallantry awards to obviate the recurrence of such incidents in future.

It observed that the incident showed that the entire selection process of conferment of gallantry awards was not transparent.

“There is no doubt that the selection process for conferment of gallantry awards needs to be made more rigorous and meticulous in order to choose only those defence personnel who had exhibited exceptional valour during war,” it said.

At the same time, it said, the whole exercise should be transparent and objective so that there is no scope for accusations from any quarters.

As per official records, Major Singh was from 6 Rajput battalion which was deployed in Chhamb-Jaurian sector of Jammu and Kashmir during the 1965 war.

Singh had died in an ambush by the enemy while he and some other troops were laying mines in the area of operation of the battalion on 14 September, 1965.

The committee said that when it asked the defence ministry on the possibility of conferring late Singh with Param Vir Chakra or any other gallantry award posthumously, it ruled out relaxation in laid down rules, saying honours and awards are conferred within a specific period of two calendar years from the date of the act.

“Since the act mentioned in the petition took place 50 years ago, the case cannot be considered at this stage,” according to submission before the committee by the ministry.