General Bipin Rawat, during his annual press conference, said such actions are forbidden in the Army. At the same time, he added that the Army is not above the law.
Representative pic
Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat Thursday suggested that the Supreme Court verdict on decriminalisation of gay sex may not be implemented in the Army.
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General Bipin Rawat, during his annual press conference, said such actions are forbidden in the Army. At the same time, he added that the Army is not above the law. "We will not allow this to happen in the Army," he said.
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat addressing an annual press conference in Delhi: For LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) issues, in the Army these are not acceptable. We will still be dealing with them under various sections of the Army Act. pic.twitter.com/CKegft94in
— ANI (@ANI) January 10, 2019
In what was hailed as a historic move, a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court last September unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality.
When asked about the court ruling on adultery, he said that the Army is conservative. "We can't allow it to perpetrate into the Army," the Army chief said. Last year, the Supreme Court had struck down a colonial-era anti-adultery law, saying it was unconstitutional, dented the individuality of women and treated them as "chattel of husbands".
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