Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... it is recorded, the court shall ascertain that the accused understands the nature of the charge to which he has pleaded guilty and shall inform him of the general effect of that plea, and in particular of the meaning of the charge to which he has pleaded guilty and of the difference in procedure which will be made by the plea of guilty, and shall advise him to withdraw that plea if it appears from the summary of evidence (if any) or otherwise that the accused ought to plead not ..... in response, learned counsel for the respondents has submitted that a bare reading of the provisions would show that neither the plea of guiltynor the certificate was required to be signed by the accused and therefore, scm proceedings cannot be held to be vitiated for want of signatures. ..... learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently argued that the absence of his signatures on the so called plea of guilty and the corresponding certificate under, by itself, is sufficient to say that the statutorily mandatory requirements laid down in ar. ..... page b of the format shows that the accused having pleaded guilty to the charges, the provisions of army r.115 (2a) were complied with which means that the court had ascertained that the accused understood the nature and meaning of the charges to which he had pleaded guilty and explained to him the general effect of the plea of guilty and the difference in the procedure which would be made on a plea of guilty. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... accused ought to plead not guilty nor is the factum of compliance of sub-rule (2) has been recorded by the commanding officer in the manner prescribed in sub ..... :- the record of the proceedings shows that the plea of guilty has not been entered into by the accused nor has it been recorded as per rule 115 in as much neither it has been recorded as finding of court nor was the accused informed about the general effect of plea of guilt nor about the difference in procedure which is involved in plea of guilt nor did he advise the petitioner to withdraw the plea if it appeared from the summary of evidence that the ..... learned counsel made a vehement plea that no court martial had been held in the manner as documented and that the petitioner had not pleaded guilty to the charges against him and since his signatures do not appear on the plea of guilt or on the certificate of their compliance under army rule 115(2), the scm proceedings deserve to be set aside and the petitioner should be reinstated in service with all consequential benefits. 4. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... it is further pointed out that provisions of army rule 115(2) were duly complied with as the trial was conducted on the plea of guilty. 9. ..... merely because the respondent pleaded guilty is immaterial. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... counsel for the respondents argued that while it was correct to say that the appellant has not signed his plea of guilty, which is an essential requirement, the gravamen of the charge or the substance of the accusation against the appellant has been more than established in this case. ..... the first and foremost argument put forth by learned counsel for the appellant was that the appellant has not signed the plea of guilt on the scm proceedings and that his signatures do not appear either under the plea of guilty or under the mandatory certificate under army rule 115(2). ..... counsel for the respondents also stated that the plea of the appellant that the sentence given to him was harsh and disproportionate is unsubstantiated because he had three earlier red ink entries to his credit as well as one black ink entry in his short span of 11 years. ..... keeping the above facts in view, especially the fact that he has admitted to the guilt in the summary of evidence, we do not find any reason to set aside the proceedings on the mere technicality that the plea of guilt has not been signed by the appellant. ..... and lastly it was submitted that the summary of evidence was not read over to him at the trial after he pleaded guilty. 5. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... , the court shall ascertain that the accused understands the nature of the charge to which he has pleaded guilty and shall inform him of the general effect of that plea, and in particular of the meaning of the charge to which he has pleaded guilty and of the difference in procedure which will be made by the plea of guilty, and shall advise him to withdraw that plea if it appears from the summary of evidence (if any) or otherwise that the accused ought to plead ..... of the constitution of india was brought for quashing the proceedings of the summary court martial (scm) whereby the appellant was held guilty for the offence u/s 52 (a) of the army act for committing theft of 3 rifles (property belonging to govt. ..... to sign some of the blank papers and if those blank papers have been converted into a plea of the guilt and other forms, that would not relate to the trial in which he was ..... it is also said that in the absence of explaining the outcome of the plea of the guilt, would otherwise be construed that whatever the signatures on the blank papers were taken from the appellant, they were without adhering to army ..... it is submitted that while convicting the appellant on the so called plea of guilt, no case was taken to the arrangement made in army ..... aspect of the case, it may be observed as the result of the plea of guilt, courts are required an utmost solicitude in conversing the matter with the accused to be sure that his plea of guilt should be construed to be his admission or confession. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... evidence that the accused ought to plead not guilty nor is the factum of compliance of sub-rule (2) has been recorded by the commanding officer in the manner prescribed ..... in the absence of any records or evidence of the court martial and also considering that the plea of guilty was not signed by the appellant, we have no hesitation in setting aside the scm proceedings, including the sentence of dismissal ( ..... record of the proceedings shows that the plea of guilty has not been entered into by the accused nor has it been recorded as per rule 115 in as much neither it has been recorded as finding of court nor was the accused informed about the general effect of plea of guilt nor about the difference in procedure which is involved in plea of guilt nor did he advise the petitioner to withdraw the plea if it appeared from the summary of ..... with regard to the signing of the plea of guilty under army rule 115(29), counsel for the respondents urged that the appellant had made an unequivocal plea of guilty, however, he conceded from the photo copy of the records, as filed by the appellant, that the signatures of the appellant do not appear below the plea of guilty and neither below the certificate under .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... in view the fact that no hearing under ar 22 has been held and also that the plea of guilty was not in consonance with the summary of evidence wherein the appellant had repeatedly indicated that he was not guilty, it was incumbent on the commanding officer to convert the plea of guilt to not guilty under the provisions of ar 116(4), we are of the opinion that there has been miscarriage ..... his statement at the summary of evidence is exhaustive, wherein he has clearly brought out that he is not guilty of the offence and that he had at no time, pointed the lmg at l/nk ramesh and that he himself had been injured in the scuffle between the ..... any judicious co would have converted the plea of guilt to not guilty under the provisions of ar 116(4) and proceeded with the ..... in fact, the co has proceeded with the plea of guilty purely to save his own skin because the summary of evidence proceedings disclose the lax state of discipline that existed ..... inexplicable as to how the co could endorse such plea of guilty and proceed with the trial. ..... that after reading the summary of evidence, should the co feel that the appelalnt does not understand the plea of guilt, then he should change that plea to one of not guilty and proceed with the trial as if the appellant had pleaded not guilty. ..... a plain reading of the summary of evidence would indicate that such plea of guilty was unsustainable. ..... appellant argued that the plea of guilt endorsed in the scm proceedings was not an unequivocal plea of guilty. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... the first and foremost contention of the appellant was that he had not signed the plea of guilty on the original record of the court martial and in actual fact, his signatures were taken on a blank piece of paper after the trial and the certificate under army rule 115(2) typed on it and appended to the ..... therefore, all along, on five distinct occasions, he had accepted his guilt and the plea of guilty is in consonance with his earlier stance all along. 11. ..... , in addition to his signatures on ar 115(2), he has also signed on page g of the proceedings, wherein he was found guilty and also on the last page of the proceedings, wherein his sentence is recorded. ..... he has made his voluntary statement at the summary of evidence admitting his guilt and finally at the scm, he has pleaded guilty to both the charges and signed the certificate under army rule 115(2). ..... challenging the summary court martial proceedings, whereby the petitioner was found guilty of having committed the offences under army act sections 69 and 39(a) and sentenced to be reduced to the ranks; to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year; and to be dismissed from service, he filed w.p no ..... counsel for the respondents stated that all along the plea of the appellant has been that he was guilty. ..... i plead guilty to my charge of hitting jc 478207p nb/sub puran singh by a short iron picket on his head and then becoming ..... therefore, the plea that he acted in self defence is completely fabricated and without any base, whatsoever. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... it was not for him to drop the charge where he pleaded not guilty and to accept the plea of guilty and sentence him on these two charges. ..... challenge in this writ petition is directed against the court martial proceedings, whereby he was found guilty of the offences under army act sections 48 and 63 and sentenced to be dismissed from service. ..... (c) the scm proceedings themselves are suspect as the co decides not to proceed with the third charge merely because the appellant had pleaded not guilty to this charge and had pleaded guilty to the first two charges. ..... counsel for the appellant made a very vehement plea that the entire incident, investigation, recording of evidence and summary court martial was a fabricated and illegal process to dismiss him at the behest of some senior officers. ..... if the third charge has been dropped, then how can the co refer to it in the memorandum of the scm or inform the appellants wife that he has been held guilty of this charge? .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Armed forces Tribunal AFT Principal Bench New Delhi
..... in all fairness, the commanding officer should have changed his plea of guilty to not guilty under the provisions of ar 116(4) and conducted a full-fledged trial. ..... despite these repeated statements of innocence for the co to proceed against him as if he had pleaded guilty was distortion of the factual position, notwithstanding the fact that he had signed such proceedings and plea of guilt based on inducements and threats by his co. 5. ..... the appellant also contended that all along he had pleaded his innocence and for him to be tried on a plea of guilt was grossly illegal. ..... the last plea of inadequate money was also irrelevant as he could have drawn his salary at hq 15 corps where he was being sent on duty. ..... the plea that he had a boil on his armpit and, therefore, could not proceed on temporary duty was unacceptable because he could have got this boil treated even on temporary duty at hq 15 corps or while en route at any suitable medical .....
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