New Delhi: The Supreme Court’s verdict on the decriminalisation of gay sex may not be implemented in the Army, suggested the Army chief General Bipin Rawat.
While speaking at his annual press conference, he said such actions are forbidden in the Army. At the same time, the Army is not above the law, he added.
He asserted that “In the Army, these are not acceptable. We will still be dealing with them under various sections of the Army Act, we will not allow this to happen in the Army.”
When asked about the court ruling on adultery, he said the Army is conservative. “We can’t allow it to perpetrate into the Army,” the Army chief said.
The Supreme Court in September last year has legalised gay sex and decriminalised Section 377 of the IPC, holding out the promise of a new dawn in personal liberty. The five judge-bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra delivered the verdict.
The Supreme Court had in 2013 restored Section 377, a British-era law that bans gay sex. It had overturned a landmark judgement by the Delhi High court in 2009 which had ruled that consenting intercourse between two adults was not illegal.
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court had scrapped the controversial Section 377- a 158-year-old colonial law on consensual gay sex.