The Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Act has been notified through a Gazette Notification to be enforced with effect from May 10, 2024.
Inter-Services Organisations Act Notified: Defence Ministry
The Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Act has been notified through a Gazette Notification to be enforced with effect from May 10, 2024. In order to bolster effective command, control and efficient functioning of ISOs the bill was passed by both the Houses of Parliament during the Monsoon Session of 2023. The Bill received the assent of the President on August 15, 23.
The Act empowers Commanders-in-Chief and Officers-in-Command of ISOs to exercise control over Service personnel, serving under them, for effective maintenance of discipline and administration, without disturbing the unique service conditions of each individual Service.
Salient Features
The ‘ISO act – 2023’ shall be applicable to all personnel of regular Army, Navy, and Air force, and to persons of other forces as notified by the Central Government, who are serving in or attached to an Inter-Services Organisation. act empowers the Commander-in-Chief, Officer-in-Command or any other officer specially empowered in this behalf by the Central Government with all the disciplinary and administrative powers in respect of personnel serving in or attached to their ISO for the maintenance of discipline and proper discharge of their duties, irrespective of the service.
The Commander-in-Chief or the Officer-in-Command means General Officer/Flag Officer/Air Officer who has been appointed as Commander-in-Chief of Officer-in-Command an Inter-Services Organisation. To maintain Command and Control in absence of the Commander-in-Chief or the Officer-in-Command, the officiating incumbent or the officer on whom the command develops in absence of a C-in-C or Oi/C, will also be empowered to initiate all disciplinary or administrative actions overs the service personnel, appointed, deputed, posted or attached to an Inter-Services organisation.
The act also empowers the Commanding Officer of an Inter-Services organisation to initiate all disciplinary or administrative actions over the personnel appointed, deputed, posted or attached to that Inter-Services Organisation. For the purpose of this Act, Commanding Officer means the officer in actual command of the unit, ship or establishment. The Bill empowers the Central Government to constitute an Inter- Services Organisation.
The ‘ISO act-2023’ is essentially an Enabling Act and it does not propose any change in the existing Service Acts/Rules/Regulations which are time-tested and have withstood judicial scrutiny over the last six decades or more. Service personnel when serving in or attached to an Inter-Services Organisation will continue to be governed by their respective Service Acts. What it does is to empower Heads of Inter-Services Organisations to exercise all the disciplinary and administrative powers as per the existing Service Acts/Rules/Regulations, irrespective of the service they belong to.
