As reported by the media, the military has moved the Supreme Court of India with a plea that “adultery” should continue to remain an offence for the defence services though it has been decriminalized by the Supreme Court.
The said application
filed in the Court for clarification, in the opinion of this contributor, is
misplaced and ill-advised. I say so because once a section in the penal code stands
decriminalized, it cannot be recriminalized only for the military, and notwithstanding
the decriminalization, if any such liaison has an implication on service
discipline or any other aspect of service life, it still remains an offence
under the provisions dealing with ‘conduct unbecoming’ and ‘violation of good
order and discipline’. If that does not suffice, the Parliament can legislate a
separate offence in the military codes rather than the Government approaching the
Court with a plea to make the Supreme Court ruling ineffective for the
military.
A full-fledged opinion
piece on the subject of the interplay of adultery with the military in view of
its decriminalization, written for The Quint, can be accessed here.
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