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Military Law Literature in India


This article is about military law literature in India.

Military law provisions govern the role of India Army during peace and war formulated in the form of Statutes, Rules and Regulations. It is a written code which has seen periodic changes and review, apart from conventions (read customs) of service.

Official publications mainly take the form of the Army Act, 1950, Army Rules 1954 and the Regulations for the Army, 1987 (in short RA). Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007 and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act are also relevant legislation. Another significant but obscure provision is Notes to Indian Military and Air Force Law (commonly referred as NMAFL). Strangely for reason not known, RA and NMAFL continue to be not accessible to the scholars and public at large.

There are two aspects significant for the purpose of this discussion. Firstly, military law publications were called by different names in the earlier years. However, these were all official publications. Law being complex and technical in nature, these text were not easy to comprehend and apply. The same called for a need to draft ‘notes’ or ‘comments’ thereto. These were prepared and duly inserted by the authorities, whose identity was not indicated. Secondly, military law was included in the syllabus for retention and promotion examinations for military officers. This was done with a view to make the officers study and assimilate relevant legal provisions necessary for enforcement of a disciplinary code amongst the men under their command. A need therefore, existed for publication of books that could explain, guide and amplify the rules. Thus such handbooks were required not only for application of law by the officers for unit routine but also for their understanding while preparing for obligatory examinations.

Infrequent actions were also taken to bring out précis and other publications at command and corps level for dissemination of military law. These too were all in-house publications.

The growth of military law literature emerged from sheer necessity. It was acknowledged by General C.H. Harrington GBE, KCB, DSO, DCL, the then General Officer Commanding in Chief of Quetta-based Western Command on 28 October 1930 in a foreword to the book titled Handbook of Military Law by Capt. R.J. Wilkins and W.S. Chaney. He wrote,


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