New Delhi: The 56-nation Commonwealth Secretariat has appointed Punjab and Haryana High Court attorney Navdeep Singh as a member of its five-member Military Justice Advisory Committee.
The committee helps member countries in bringing about military justice reform and legislative transformation.
Major Navdeep Singh, whose appointment to the committee was announced by the Commonwealth Secretariat on 12 January, is actively involved with soldiers’ rights and tribunalisation and specialises in constitutional and service law. He is also the founder president of the Armed Forces Tribunal Bar Association, set up in 2009 in Chandigarh, and has served as a major in the Territorial Army.
Additionally, he was a member of the High Level Committee of Experts, which was set up in 2015 at the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce service issue related litigation connected to defence personnel.
He was also a member of the Yale Draft, drawn up in 2018 to promote independence, competence and impartiality in military justice processes, and is a fellow of both the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War in Brussels and the National Institute of Military Justice in Washington.
The Commonwealth Secretariat “promotes democracy, good governance, peace and rule of law” under the Office of Civil and Criminal Justice Reform (OCCJR).
Member countries are spread across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and America. It has observer status in the UN and is located in London, United Kingdom.
Also read: ‘Against contract, law’: Why ONGC is urging SC to remove arbitrators who demanded ‘exorbitant’ fee
Who are Singh’s fellow members
It is learnt that all members of the Military Justice Advisory Committee will serve on an honorary basis.
In addition to Singh, the committee includes professor Eugene Fidell, who has served as judge advocate in the US Coast Guard, Kevin Riordan, the judge advocate general of armed forces in New Zealand, Dr. Michelle Nel, a vice dean at the Faculty of Military Science in the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and Alan Large, judge advocate general of the United Kingdom.
Among the members, Judge Large is a keen observer of legal issues that impact military services of the government, Fidell is a global leader in military justice reform, Riordan has authored numerous manuals on operational law, armed conflict law, and war crimes and Nel’s areas of specialisation include international law, military law, and maritime security, it is learnt.
The Commonwealth Secretariat is contemplating the developing of model military justice concepts.
The agency’s release cited the United Nations Principles Governing the Administration of Justice Through Military Tribunals (known as “the Decaux Principles”), which were further improved upon at a meeting held at Yale Law School in March 2018, resulting in the compilation of the Yale Draft, as among previous advancements made in the field of military justice.
The emphasis of these guidelines has been on ensuring impartiality, competency, and independence of military judicial systems, it is learnt.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Armed Forces Tribunal has 19,000 pending cases, but here’s why this is least of its problems