NEW DELHI: A general court martial on Tuesday sentenced a Colonel to two years’ loss of seniority in pension and awarded him a “severe reprimand” for “unbecoming conduct” after he was found alone with a Lt-Colonel’s wife in the middle of the night at the Bathinda military station in Punjab last year.
An officer of the Corps of Engineers posted at the 10 Corps in Bathinda, the Colonel was tried for “unbecoming conduct” and “acts prejudicial to good military order and discipline” under relevant sections of the Army Act by the court martial held at the Lalgarh Jattan military station in Sri Ganganagar district of
Rajasthan.
Army sources contended the court martial, chaired by a Brigadier, did not consider any charge of adultery against the Colonel. The military police had detained the Colonel from the house of the Lt-Colonel, who was away to participate in a golf tournament in Chandigarh, after the latter apparently complained to a senior officer.
Though the verdict will have to be “confirmed” by higher Army authorities, a severe reprimand being recorded against an officer is usually enough to stop all his further promotions in the force.
In September, the Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional Section 497 of the
Indian Penal Code
(IPC), which punished a married man for adultery if he had sexual relations with a married woman "without the consent or connivance of her husband".
But an extra-marital affair, or “stealing the affections of a brother officer’s wife’’ in military parlance, is still considered a serious offence in the armed forces. Many officers indicted for such acts have been summarily sacked, sometimes without pension and other benefits, in the past.
The over 14-lakh personnel in the armed forces are governed by their respective Army, Navy and IAF Acts, which come down heavily on “unbecoming conduct and actions” that may strictly not be criminal acts under the IPC.