An Officer's Career & AWWA - What's The Connection Here ?

Vikas Kohal has a story to tell in Mail Today about how an army wife is taking a Colonel to court for poor remarks in her husband’s ACR .

Another woman has cried war against the Indian Army top brass.

And this time around, the allegations are of ‘ spouse- harassment’. An Army officer’s wife has decided to take legal action against her husband’s bosses for tarnishing his professional record. Savneet Paul says her husband Major P. S. Paul was targeted because of her refusal to work with the Army Wives Welfare Association ( AWWA).

A legal notice has been sent to Colonel D. S. Loomba and his wife Meenu. Loomba was the commanding officer ( CO) of Meerut’s 67 Engineer Regiment from January 4, 2008, to January 1, 2009. Major Paul had served the regiment during this period. Savneet has accused Loomba of making adverse remarks in her husband’s annual confidential report ( ACR) because of her nonparticipation in the AWWA activities. She has granted the authorities a month’s time to withdraw the remarks and apologise.

She said Colonel Loomba had ridiculed her husband “ on record” on the basis of the “ couple’s performance”. Paul’s ACR states: “ On the social front, including AWWA activities, the couple’s performance was found to be below average.” Guneet Chaudhary, Savneet’s Chandigarh- based lawyer, said her client was victimised by her husband’s superiors. Savneet said she could not follow the ‘ orders’ issued by the CO’s wife since she was pregnant.

Trouble started when Savneet, a resident of Patiala in Punjab, joined Paul in Meerut.
Meenu introduced her to AWWA activities saying it was an NGO. But the CO’s wife often “ forced” the officers’ wives to work for AWWA, she alleged. When Savneet sought to be excused on the grounds of pregnancy, Meenu allegedly threatened her with an adverse effect on Paul’s career prospects.

The Colonel also allegedly asked his wife to “ socially outcast” her from the regiment’s affairs.
Chaudhary said the Army had declared under oath that the AWWA does not have any connection with its functioning. If that was the case, how Paul’s ACR could mention the couple’s AWWA activities, she wondered. Attempts to contact Colonel Loomba went futile. Officials at the Army’s Eastern Command, where he is posted now, refused to comment saying Loomba was away from Dimapur.

Chaudhary said Savneet’s was not an individual case. Lawyers keep getting similar complaints from many officers’ wives, she claimed. Another woman wanted to take legal action against the Army authorities for harassing her. She says she was pregnant when her husband was ordered to stay with the company in Siliguri. She wanted to go with her husband.

Chaudhary read out the email: “ When I informed the CO’s wife about my decision, she verbally abused me. The CO then called up my husband and asked him to leave me behind. We refused. It was impossible for me to manage a one- year- old child alone in the third month of pregnancy. After that, the drunken CO would call every night, threatening my husband to spoil his ACR. After three months, my husband put in his papers. But the CO did not forward the papers to his seniors.” She took up the matter with the defence ministry and the Army chief. The commander’s wife assured her some reprieve through AWWA. But nothing happened and her husband was transferred to another station.

“ Since AWWA had done nothing for me, I did not participate in its activities. The CO’s wife then threatened to spoil my husband’s ACR,” the mail goes on. The woman went on to say she had made an MMS of the “ harassment in the name of welfare”.