The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to respond to a PIL asking to replace INSAS rifles used by Indian armed and para-military forces with modern firearms.
A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain to take instructions from the government and inform it by July 8 on the PIL alleging that INSAS rifles were substandard.
The plea filed by Lt. Colonel (retd.) Deepak Malhotra alleged that INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) rifles have several problems like jamming and cracking of the magazines.
"Despite knowing, for several years, that the indigenous INSAS assault rifles are of defective design and metallurgy, the bureaucratic system has delayed the replacement of these unreliable assault rifles even though the replacements (like AK-47) were actually cheaper than the INSAS. Elite Army Units have rejected these weapons (INSAS). The rifle malfunctioned in the Kargil war," said the plea.
It said that soldiers of Indian Army and of para-military forces are losing their lives because of the inaction on part of the government in not upgrading the field/service rifles provided to the soldiers and leaving them to fight the well equipped Naxalites and terrorists with INSAS service rifles which are admittedly outdated and have many defects.
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The petitioner is actuated by the recent news of the death of several jawans of the BSF in an ambush at Dantewara, Chhattisgarh. One of the injured jawans in an interview on TV said clearly that the defective INSAS led to the massacre, the plea added.
"The defect in these rifles has been known to the authorities since long but because of bureaucratic red tape, the jawans are made to make do with a clearly inferior weapon at the risk of losing their life," it added.
The plea also sought direction to the ministry of defence to withdraw the INSAS rifles from active service and replace these with suitably modern firearms in a time-bound manner. It also asked the court to issue directions to the ministry to produce the records pertaining to the long pending decision to replace defective INSAS rifles.
