The Muster Sheet and the Subedar's Verbal Order
Corporal B commands a 12-man quick-response team at a landside check post. On 3 March, Constable C, aged 24, fails to report for the 22:00 shift. At 23:40 C's cousin telephones the post to say that C's elder brother died that evening in a road accident and that C has left for his village, 90 km away. C returns at 06:00 on 5 March with no written application and no death certificate. Meanwhile the morning muster shows a vacancy for the next seven days. The subedar tells Corporal B to 'enter him present, otherwise the whole troop gets a black mark and my leave gets cancelled'. Corporal B's annual confidential report is due next month, and the subedar writes the preliminary remarks. Standing orders require any absence to be reported within 24 hours in writing, and casualty leave to be sanctioned by the company commander.
1. The subedar orders you to mark Constable C present. What do you do, and on what reasoning?
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Refuse the entry, but refuse it privately and in writing. The muster sheet is a record of fact, not a favour. Mark C absent for the shifts he missed and enter the reason as reported, with the time of the cousin's call and the caller's name. Reasoning: two duties collide - obedience to a superior and the accuracy of a service record. Marking a man present when he was not there is a false record, which is a more serious charge than the absence itself, and the person who signs the sheet is the one who answers at an inquiry, not the subedar. How to refuse: do not argue in front of the troop. Put a short note to the subedar: you cannot certify presence for hours the man did not work, and you ask that the case be forwarded for retrospective sanction of casualty leave by the company commander. If he insists, request the order in writing - that request usually ends the matter, and if it does not, it protects you.
2. Was the 36-hour absence misconduct? Reason both ways before concluding.
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Against him: he left the station without informing his superior, missed a shift, and filed no written application within 24 hours. The standing order is about information, not permission - a man who cannot report for duty can still get word through, and here a cousin managed it in 100 minutes, which shows it was possible. For him: the death is a genuine and sudden emergency; word did reach the post quickly, which points to explanation rather than concealment; he returned voluntarily at 06:00 without being sent for; and there is no suggestion of a false claim, only of a missing certificate. Conclusion: the correct course is to treat it as absence pending regularisation, not to announce a charge. Record the facts without adjectives, obtain a death certificate or a written statement from a village notable, and let the company commander decide between retrospective casualty leave, an informal warning, or a formal charge. Your rank and role are to report accurately, not to decide the penalty.
3. How do you protect yourself against the threat to your annual confidential report, and what record do you create?
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- Do not trade the record for the report. An adverse remark can be represented against through the proper channel; a false muster sheet cannot be defended at all.
- Contemporaneous note the same night in the duty diary: time of the call, name and relationship of the caller, who was informed, which shift was left uncovered, and how it was covered.
- Written report through the channel, keeping a dated copy with the receipt stamp, mentioning the subedar's instruction factually and without comment, since you had to decline it.
- Ask in writing for the vacancy to be covered - a signal or application - so the record shows you raised a problem, not merely refused an order.
- If a remark does appear in the report, use the representation route with the diary entries attached rather than a confrontation. A calm file of dates beats an argument about motives.