The ASG Aishwarya Bhati has been appointed as the member of the Commonwealth Global Consultation Body, becoming the second Indian to join the group.
Earlier, the Punjab and Haryana High Court lawyer Major Navdeep Singh was being appointed as the member of the Five-Member Advisory Committee on Military Justice of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The Commonwealth Secretariat is engaged in a project in order to assist and to promote the reform of military justice systems.
The commonwealth being an international body which consist of 56 nations and promotes democracy, good governance, peace and the rule of law.
Therefore, the Advisory Committee, under the Office of Civil and Criminal Justice Reform, OCCJR in the case would handle the request made from the member countries for assistance in military justice reform and other related matters, such as legislative transformation. Thus, the Advisory committee is actively engaged in drafting of the Commonwealth Military Justice Principles, to which the Consultation Group will provide of the input.
The other members of the Advisory Committee are the Judge Alan Large of the United Kingdom, Chief Judge Kevin Riordan of New Zealand, Dr Michelle Nel, the Vice Dean of University of Stellenbosch of South Africa and the Professor Eugene Fidell of the Yale University, USA.
Aishwarya Bhati who being the senior advocate of the Supreme Court and currently the Additional Solicitor General of India. Thus, Aishwarya Bhati represented the petitioners in the landmark judgment which authorised ‘permanent commission’ to women officers of the defence services. Navdeep Singh, who being the Chandigarh based lawyer was also the member of the High-Level Committee of Experts which is constituted by the defence minister on directions of the Prime Minister in 2015 to reduce litigation initiated by the Ministry of Defence and to strengthen the system of redressal of grievances. He being the former Territorial Army volunteer-reservist and was the first President of the Armed Forces Tribunal Bar Association, Chandigarh Bench.
