Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 29, 2022 at 22:23 IST
On Thursday, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court inquired as to whether the ruling in Joseph Shine vs. Union of India, which decriminalized adultery in India, would make it more difficult to discipline members of the armed forces who engage in adultery.
The court asked the query while discussing disciplinary actions taken by the military in connection with adultery cases.
The question to be answered is whether the practice can continue after the Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) Section 497, which punished adultery, was unanimously overturned by the Constitution Bench in 2018.
During the hearing, Justice KM Joseph said that the uniformed services ought to be subject to punishment.
“You see, there needs to be discipline in the uniformed services. Why shouldn’t the forces be allowed to act on misconduct if a private company is allowed to? If there is a chance that a family may split up, then,” said the judge.
The judge continued by stating that infidelity splits families apart and citing the numerous habeas corpus petitions brought before High Courts as a result of such events.
He then asked the lawyer, “Is there anything in the ruling which prevents you from initiating action for misconduct?”
The Court also held that, on the surface, nothing prevented persons who had been wronged by disciplinary proceedings from contesting specific orders of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) that dismissed such proceedings.
However, the counsel highlighted their concern regarding what they considered to be indiscipline and improper behavior inside the military.
“Some AFTs have granted judgements [to do away with misconduct procedures] if another officer, it may be consenting in nature, accesses another officer’s quarters when they are posted away from home,” the counsel said.
December 6 was set as the new date for the hearing.
Counsel were explicitly instructed to hunt for clauses in the Joseph Shine ruling that barred army officers from facing disciplinary action.