Government of India
Ministry of Defence
D(CMU)
Sena Bhawan, New Delhi,
Dated 07 September, 2018.
Subject: Implementation of recommendations of Expert Committee constituted by Hon’ble Raksha Mantri
Reducing Litigation has been the prime focus of the Government of India and is being repeatedly emphasized by various circulars from Cabinet Secretariat and Ministry of Law & Justice. in this regard, various circulars have been issued by D(CMU) which cover the following aspects significantly:
I. Procedure for handling Court Cases in Ministry of Defence.
II. Procedure for filing of Appeal/SLP in Supreme Court.
III. Measures to withdraw repeated Appeals/SLPs where the issue has already been decided by the Apex court.
Copies of relevant circulars are enclosed.
2. in this regard, a Committee of Experts was also constituted by the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri vide MoD O.M. No.61/D(CMU)/2015 dated 15.07.2015 to look into solutions for reducing litigation concerning the Ministry of Defence and to put in place an efficient mechanism of redressal of grievances related to service and pension matter. The said Committee has made several recommendations to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism and to reduce litigation. These were examined by the Ministry. With the approval of the Hon’ble RM, 16 recommendations were accepted for implementation, 16 recommendations were accepted in-principle and 43 recommendations were to be further examined for taking an appropriate decision. Based on the recommendations of the Committee, the following guidelines are hereby reiterated for the guidance of all concerned:
Recommendations No. 22, 24 & 61 : Avoiding unnecessary appeals
In these recommendations, the committee has recommended that litigation be viewed in an impersonal, non-adversarial and dispassionate manner and should not be made a prestige-issue or a win/loss situation. The committee has also recommended that- the tendency of continuous unethical filing of appeals in issues that have attained finality at the High Court or Supreme Court should be checked and all such pending appeals should be identified and immediately withdrawn. Further, it has also been emphasized by the committee that unnecessary appeals should be avoided. and as a matter of principle, the attempt of the Government should be to accept court verdicts as far as possible. Appeals should be an exception and not the rule. And in exceptional cases only challenges should be made to the High Courts against verdicts of CAT rendered in favour of employees, and not as a matter of routine.
All concerned are requested to take note of the above mentioned guidelines. In this regard, D(CMU) has also issued ID note No. 7(9)/2018/D(CMU) dated 26.06.2018 (copy enclosed) and Office Order No. 1/(1)/2015-D(CMU) dated 02/02/2016 (copy enclosed).
Recommendation No. 50: Applicability of Judgements to similarly placed employees
Expert committee has recommended that whenever a legal principle is settled by a High Court or the Supreme Court, the same must be universally applied to all similarly placed employees or at least on individual representations after examining the same, rather than forcing them into individual litigation.
In this regard, attention is drawn to D(CMU)’s ID No. 7(9)/2018/D(Cl\/lU) dated 26.06.2018 (copy enclosed). However, it is proposed that each case may be decided on its merit, subject to consultation with Department of Expenditure and DOP&T having regard to financial implications.
4. All concerned are again requested to take cognizance of the above recommendations and take necessary action as required, in order to reduce litigation.
Sd/-
(SK Sharma)
Director(MIS)
Encl: - As above.
All Joint Secretaries in MoD
All-Additional FAs in MoD(Finance)
CCR&D HQ
MoD ID No. 4(5)/D (CMU)/ 2018 dated 07.09.2018