Colonel ‘follows’ instructions, still gets show-cause notice

New Delhi: In a rather bizarre turn of events, a Colonel has been issued a show-cause notice for allegedly ‘not following’ rules while airing a grievance. This even as he had followed the Army’s own guidelines and rules for airing such issues, leading to questions if it was misinterpretation of the instructions. On July 1, 2017, Colonel Mukul Dev, then posted at 12 Corps, Jodhpur, had served a legal notice to the government through the Defence Secretary questioning the move to stop the facility of “rations” to  the Army saying there was no provision to give cash in lieu of food stuff. He had served the legal notice under Section 80 of the Civil Procedure Code. A show-cause notice has been served on him on February 18, 2018, for having served the legal notice. Rather strangely, the Army’s own instructions issued on October 24, 2016, when detailing the route for serving officers to file a court case say: “A legal notice under section 80 of the CPC ought to be served two months prior to filing a suit in court against the Government or a public officer.” TNS