It was not a “landmark” verdict in the classical sense, nor was it a “class action”: yet there is considerable significance to the apex court’s ruling that an accused appearing before a military court should be permitted to engage a civil counsel if he so desired.

That order from Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah virtually condemned to the trash can an obsolete Army rule that said assistance of civil counsel could be demanded only if the alleged offence could attract the death sentence. Striking a blow in favour of “natural justice”, the court said the rule was defective when it permitted a subjective element to come into play in lesser offences ~ when civil counsel was sought by any accused (at personal expense) it “must” be permitted. The “may” in the rule enabled the presiding officer of the court-martial to exercise unwarranted discriminatory power.

The case against Sepoy Jaswant Singh may have appeared trivial but when rejecting the arguments advanced by Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand in favour of the archaic rule, the apex court actually sent out the powerful message that draconian action no longer had any place in the prevailing system of military justice. Changing times emphasised a more humane approach.

Though admittedly she already has a lot on her plate, the defence minister, Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, has now been provided the opportunity to make a landmark contribution to upgrading the functioning of the personnel under her supervision.

Ordering a comprehensive modernisation of the military justice system would be catering to a long-standing requirement: only piecemeal action has been thus far. Many of the regulations were conceived when prevalent was the philosophy of ‘theirs’ not to reason why/theirs’ but to do and die’ and such thinking is completely obsolete in 2018.

The reluctance of quality young persons ~ customarily described as “material” in military parlance ~ to join the defence services is because they find several aspects of the “discipline” regime soul-killing, abhorrent. A more contemporary system of man-management would contribute to a military career proving more alluring.

True that the pay packet of the uniforms will never match what the corporate sector offers, yet there are huge attractions in the quality of life in the forces ~ provided the scope for being bullied and reduced to automations is curtailed.

Maybe some of today’s brass-hats will insist that indiscipline could be the fall-out of reform: in reality what they would be admitting is the decay of the “leadership quality” that once was their hallmark. A modern military is more than a parade-ground army: the employment of cutting-edge technologies and advanced man-management systems are as critical as state-of-the-art weaponry.

A system of military-justice that reflects 21st-century thinking could be Mrs Sitharaman’s most enduring contribution in South Block ~ and not cause any further thinning of the hair to her colleague on the northern side of Rajpath.