BrahMos accidental firing: Delhi HC seeks response from MoD, IAF on terminated officer's plea

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response from the Ministry of Defence, the Chief of Air Staff and others on a plea filed by an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer who was sacked in connection with the accidental firing of a BrahMos combat missile which landed in Pakistan in March last year.

A bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna has sought replies within six weeks on former Wing Commander Abhinav Sharma's plea challenging the termination order.

Sharma, who was was terminated from service on August 22, 2022 under Section 18 (doctrine of pleasure) of the Air Force Act, 1950, was granted time to file a rejoinder, if any, within a further four weeks.

"The petitioner was not trained against the counts of blame apportioned to him in the court of inquiry and he acted in complete obedience of the SOP. The petitioner had no experience in conducting operations and handling operational emergencies and the respondents acted in a completely mala fide manner by issuing the termination order," Sharma stated in his petition.

"By invoking Section 18 of the Air Force Act, the authorities deliberately denied him the opportunity to stand trial by a court martial, thereby, depriving him any opportunity to defend himself," he stated.

"The termination order was not in the nature of a simpliciter withdrawal of pleasure of the petitioner's appointment/termination, however, the impugned order approves the counts of blame in the court of inquiry," the petition read.

"The respondents have clearly used Section 18 of the Air Force Act to approve the counts of blame under the Court of Inquiry indirectly, which clearly impermissible under the Air Force Act. As a result, the respondents have acted beyond the scope of Section 18 of the Air Force Act by issuing the impugned termination Order," the petition read.

Senior advocate N. Hariharan, appearing for the sacked officer, said that if Sharma's trial would have taken place through the procedure of court martial, then the real picture behind the incident would have come out.

The IAF had last year in August sacked three personnel for the firing of a BrahMos missile into Pakistani territory.

The IAF in a statement had said: "BrahMos missile was accidentally fired on March 9, 2022. A Court of Inquiry (CoI), set up to establish the facts of the case, including fixing responsibility for the incident, found that deviation from the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) by three officers led to the accidental firing of the missile."

"These three officers have primarily been held responsible for the incident. Their services have been terminated by the Central Govt with immediate effect. Termination orders have been served upon the officers on August 23," the statement added.

According to the IAF, during "routine maintenance and inspection," a BrahMos missile was accidentally launched into the territory of Pakistan in the vicinity of Mian Channu town, travelling more than 120 kms west of the India-Pakistan border.

According to Pakistani military officials on March 10, the missile flew for 3 minutes and 46 seconds within Pakistani airspace.