Jammu and Kashmir HC nixes ‘deserter’ tag: ‘Missing constable can be presumed dead’

Setting apart a 10-year-old order of the Central Reserve Police Force declaring a lacking head constable as “deserter’’, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has dominated that he may be presumed “lifeless’’.
Referring to the Oxford dictionary, Justice Sanjay Dhar stated that the phrase “desert’’, within the context of the current case, would imply illegally operating away from the army service.
“An individual, whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for the final greater than 10 years, can’t be said to have illegally run away from his service,’’ Justice Dhar noticed.
Section 108 of Indian Evidence Act, the court docket stated, casts the burden of proving that an individual is alive and has not been heard of for seven years, upon the one that affirms it, Justice Dhar stated. The court docket stated that within the current case, respondent authorities (CRPF) will not be ready to state that the petitioner’s husband is alive.
“In fact, the respondents have not disputed that the petitioner’s husband has remained untraceable. Therefore, it is to be presumed that petitioner’s husband is dead as per Section 108 of Indian Evidence Act,” he noticed.

Justice Dhar held that the respondents’ motion in declaring the petitioner’s husband as “deserter’’, and thereafter handing down the punishment of dismissal to him, is unsustainable in legislation.
He additionally directed the respondents to launch all service/pension advantages of the petitioner’s husband in favour of the rightful claimant(s) in accordance with the relevant guidelines.
The court docket was listening to a plea by Madhu Devi, who had challenged the declaration of her husband—Asha Ram—as a deserter by the CRPF. In her petition, Madhu Devi sought that her husband needs to be declared lifeless when it comes to Section 108 of the Evidence Act.
The petitioner’s case was that her husband was serving as Head Constable in 16 Battalion CRPF and was final posted at Civil Lines in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. The group centre of the battalion was at Ban Talab, Jammu, the place Asha Ram lived.
In June 2010, Madhu Devi received a name from the Company Commander of the Unit, informing her that her husband had gone to fetch greens and didn’t return. The petitioner tried to contact him, however in useless. Thereafter, she stated, she knowledgeable the CRPF respondents. The household has not heard from him since.