The curious case of a colonel

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NEW DELHI:  In a curious judgment, which took nearly 10 years, the Supreme Court has ordered the Army to reinstate a retired officer to its service. Colonel Avijit Misra spent a decade fighting a legal battle with the Indian Army. The justice, though much delayed, wasn’t denied and on April 27, the apex court ordered in his favour. However, the Army is now faced with a Rubik’s cube almost bordering on mission impossible—how does it reinstate a retired official into the force? For Misra should have officially retired as a Colonel on April 30 this year.

“We are examining the court ruling and will take necessary step in this regard,” said an official of the Defence Ministry. Going by the pace at which the complainant got justice, the curious case of the colonel will perhaps stretch a few more years.

Colonel Misra, whose life story is no less dramatic than a Hollywood thriller, had to pay the price with his profession and 10 years of his life for blowing the whistle over corruption in the Army. It all began in 2003, when Misra, posted as an officer of 26 Rajputana regiment, wrote letters to his Brigade Head Quarters on the sensitive Sino-Indian border, flagging a bunch of issues plaguing his unit. He was not only fired from service, but was sent to one-year rigorous imprisonment for the ‘crime’ of blowing the whistle over problems in the unit. After being crippled professionally, his personal life went for a toss when his wife divorced him when he was in jail.  

But the soldier in Misra never gave up. He challenged his court martial in 2006 before the Armed Forces Tribunal in Kolkata. In 2012, the tribunal ordered that the colonel be reinstated but the Army challenged the ruling in the Supreme Court. Misra told The Sunday Standard: “Everything that I am today, I owe it to the Indian Army. I do know that India has no better institution than this. Unfortunately, the Army also has a dark underbelly that is perpetuated by a handful. For my own reasons, I could not be part of that handful and I felt I needed to stand up for what I believed in.” All his wait yielded result when the apex court rejected the contention of Army and ordered his reinstatement.