New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on a petition seeking replacement of the INSAS rifles with modern firearm in active service in military and the para-military.
A bench comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice RS Endlaw asked the MoD to take instructions on a PIL, filed by Lt Col (retd) Deepak Malhotra, alleging that because of "bureaucratic red tape" soldiers are made to use "clearly inferior weapon" at the "risk of losing their lives".
"You (Ministry of Defence) get instruction and place your report before us without failure before July 8," the court said. The court also said that, "You (MoD) introduce new fighter plane time and again and why are you not thinking on this aspect (removal of INSAS)?"
It also said, "You (MoD) should do something for these people (military and para-military personnel using INSAS)."
The petition was filed in the wake of recent deaths of several jawans of the BSF in an ambush at Dantewara district, Chattisgarh, alleging that the indigenous made defective INSAS (an abbreviation of Indian Small System) led to the loss of lives.
"The defect in these rifles has been known to authorities since long but because of bureaucratic red tape the jawans are made to make do with a clearly inferior weapon at the risk of losing their life," the petition said.
Besides seeking direction to the MoD to withdraw the INSAS rifles from active service and replace with suitably modern firearm in a time bound manner, the petition also urged the high court to issue directions to the MoD to produce the records pertaining to the long pending decision to replace "defective" INSAS rifles.
"This is a case of typical bureaucratic red tapism which has repeatedly resulted in death and injury to the brave jawans of the Indian Army and para-military services," the PIL said, adding that despite knowing for several years that INSAS rifles are of defective design and metallurgy and bureaucratic system has delayed their replacement.
INSAS is a family of infantry arms consisting of an assault rifle and a light machine gun (LMG).
The petition claimed that the "elite army units" have rejected INSAS and said that plans to replace them are pending in the desks of the Ministries of the Home and Defence Ministries.
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