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Chandigarh: Referring to the Supreme Court (SC) order decriminalizing adultery, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has clarified that it won’t be applicable in the armed forces where utmost discipline has to be maintained. The tribunal has passed these orders while upholding the dismissal of a jawan who was involved with his colleague’s wife.

The accused jawan had sought shelter in the September 27, 2018, order passed by the apex court in the Joseph Shine versus Union of India judgment that decriminalised adultery. He had claimed that his removal from service on the ground of adultery amounted to violation of articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.

AFT’s Lucknow bench, comprising Justice Umesh Chandra Srivastava, judicial member and vice admiral Abhay Raghunath Karve, administrative member, has passed these orders while dismissing an application filed by Gunner Bajrang Singh Parihar of artillery regiment.

The bench observed, “We observed that although SC has struck down Section 497 of the IPC… but in that judgment, it was held that the armed forces must have some kind of mechanism for disciplinary proceedings against officers for adultery. It was further held that in uniformed services, there has to be discipline. With this in view, the aforesaid order of the SC does not render any help to the applicant.”