94. Presiding officer.—At every General Force Court or Petty Force Court, the senior member shall
be the presiding officer.
95. Judge Attorneys.—Every General Force Court shall, and every Petty Force Court may, be
attended by a Judge Attorney or a Deputy Judge Attorney-General or an Additional Judge AttorneyGeneral, or, if no such officer is available, an officer approved by the Judge Attorney-General or by any
officer authorised in this behalf by the Judge Attorney-General.
96. Challenge.—(1) At all trials by a General Force Court or by a Petty Force Court, as soon as the
Court is assembled, the names of the presiding officer and members shall be read over to the accused,
who shall thereupon be asked whether he objects to being tried by any officer sitting on the Court.
(2) If the accused objects to such officer, his objection and also the reply thereto of the officer
objected to shall be heard and recorded, and the remaining officers of the Court shall, in the absence of
the challenged officer decide on the objection.
(3) If the objection is allowed by one-half or more of the votes of the officers entitled to vote, the
objection shall be allowed, and the member objected to shall retire, and his vacancy may be filled in the
prescribed manner, by another officer subject to the same right of the accused to object.
(4) When no challenge is made, or when a challenge has been made and disallowed, or the place of
every officer successfully challenged has been filled by another officer to whom no objection is made or
allowed, the Court shall proceed with the trial.
97. Oaths of member, Judge Attorney and witness.—(1) An oath or affirmation in the prescribed
manner shall be administered to every member of the Force Court and to the Judge Attorney, or, as the
case may be, the Deputy Judge Attorney-General or the Additional Judge Attorney-General or the officer
approved under section 95, before the commencement of the trial.
(2) Every person giving evidence before a Force Court shall be examined after being duly sworn or
affirmed in the prescribed form.
(3) The provisions of sub-section (2) shall not apply where the witness is a child under twelve years
of age and the Force Court is of opinion that though the witness understands the duty of speaking the
truth, he does not understand the nature of an oath or affirmation.
98. Voting by members.—(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-sections (2) and (3), every decision of
a Force Court shall be passed by an absolute majority of votes; and where there is an equality of votes on
either the finding or the sentence, the decision shall be in favour of the accused.
(2) No sentence of death shall be passed by a General Force Court without the concurrence of at least
two-thirds of the members of the Court.
(3) In matters other than a challenge or the finding or sentence, the presiding officer shall have a
casting vote.
99. General rule as to evidence.—The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872), shall, subject to the
provisions of this Act, apply to all proceedings before a Force Court.
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100. Judicial notice.—A Force Court may take judicial notice of any matter within the general
knowledge of the members as officers of the Force.
101. Summoning witnesses.—(1) The convening officer, the presiding officer of a Force Court, the
Judge Attorney or, as the case may be, the Deputy Judge Attorney-General or the Additional Judge
Attorney-General or the officer approved under section 95 or the Commanding Officer of the accused
person may, by summons under his hand, require the attendance, at a time and place to be mentioned in
the summons, of any person either to give evidence or to produce any document or other thing.
(2) In the case of a witness who is subject to this Act or any other Act relating to the armed forces of
the Union, the summons shall be sent to his Commanding Officer and such officer shall serve it upon him
accordingly.
(3) In the case of any other witness, the summons shall be sent to the magistrate within whose
jurisdiction he may be, or resides, and such magistrate shall give effect to the summons as if the witness
were required in the court of such a magistrate.
(4) When a witness is required to produce any particular document or other thing in his possession or
power, the summons shall describe it with reasonable precision.
102. Documents exempted from production.—(1) Nothing in section 101 shall be deemed to affect
the operation of sections 123 and 124 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (1 of 1872) or to apply to any
letter, postcard, telegram or other document in the custody of the postal or telegraph authorities.
(2) If any document in such custody is, in the opinion of any District Magistrate, Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Court of Sessions or High Court wanted for the purpose of any
Force Court, such Magistrate or Court may require the postal or telegraph authorities, as the case may be,
to deliver such document to such person as such Magistrate or Court may direct.
(3) If any such document is, in the opinion of any other magistrate or of any Commissioner of Police
or District Superintendent of Police, wanted for any such purpose, he may require the postal or telegraph
authorities, as the case may be, to cause such search to be made for, and to detain such document pending
the orders of any such District Magistrate, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Chief Judicial Magistrate,
Court of Sessions or High Court.
103. Commissions for examination of witnesses.—(1) Whenever, in the course of a trial by a Force
Court, it appears to the Court that the examination of a witness is necessary for the ends of justice, and
that the attendance of such witness cannot be procured without an amount of delay, expense or
inconvenience which, in the circumstances of the case, would be unreasonable, such Court may address
the Judge Attorney-General in order that a commission to take the evidence of such witness may be
issued.
(2) The Judge Attorney-General may then, if he thinks necessary, issue a commission to any
Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of the first class, within the local limits of whose
jurisdiction such witness resides, to take the evidence of such witness.
(3) The Magistrate to whom the commission is issued, or, if he is the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate,
or Chief Judicial Magistrate, or such Metropolitan Magistrate, or Judicial Magistrate, as he appoints in
this behalf, shall summon the witness before him or proceed to the place where the witness is, and shall
take down his evidence in the same manner, and may for this purpose exercise the same powers, as in the
trials of warrant-cases under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).
(4) When the witness resides in a tribal area or in any place outside India, the commission may be
issued in the manner specified in Chapter XXIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).
104. Examination of a witness on commission.—(1) The prosecutor and the accused person in any
case in which a commission is issued under section 103 may respectively forward any interrogatories in
writing which the court may think relevant to the issue, and the Magistrate executing the commission
shall examine the witness upon such interrogatories.
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(2) The prosecutor and the accused person may appear before such Magistrate by counsel, or, except
in the case of an accused person in custody, in person, and may examine, cross-examine, and re-examine,
as the case may be, the said witness.
(3) After a commission issued under section 103 has been duly executed, it shall be returned together
with the deposition of the witness examined thereunder to the Judge Attorney-General.
(4) On receipt of a commission and deposition returned under sub-section (3), the Judge AttorneyGeneral shall forward the same to the Court at whose instance the commission was issued or, if such
Court has been dissolved, to any other Court convened for the trial of the accused person; and the
commission, the return thereto and the deposition shall be open to inspection by the prosecutor and the
accused person, and may, subject to all just exceptions, be read in evidence in the case by either the
prosecutor or the accused, and shall form part of the proceedings of the Court.
(5) In every case in which a commission is issued under section 103, the trial may be adjourned for
specified time reasonably sufficient for the execution and return of the commission.
105. Conviction for offences not charged.—A person charged before a Force Court—
(a) with desertion may be found guilty of attempting to desert or of being absent without leave;
(b) with attempting to desert may be found guilty of being absent without leave;
(c) with using criminal force may be found guilty of assault;
(d) with using threatening language may be found guilty of using insubordinate language;
(e) with any one of the offences specified in clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d) of section 33 may be
found guilty of any other of these offences with which he might have been charged;
(f) with an offence punishable under section 49 may be found guilty of any other offence of
which he might have been found guilty, if the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2
of 1974), were applicable;
(g) with any offence under this Act may, on failure of proof of an offence having been committed
in circumstances involving a more severe punishment, be found guilty of the same offence as having
been committed in circumstances involving a less severe punishment;
(h) with any offence under this Act may be found guilty of having attempted or abetted the
commission of that offence, although the attempt or abetment is not separately charged.
106. Presumption as to signatures.—In any proceeding under this Act, any application, certificate,
warrant, reply or other document purporting to be signed by an officer in the service of the Government
shall, on production, be presumed to have been duly signed by the person by whom and in the character in
which it purports to have been signed, until the contrary is shown.
107. Enrolment paper.—(1) Any enrolment paper purporting to be signed by an enrolling officer
shall, in proceedings under this Act, be evidence of the person enrolled having given the answers to
questions which he is therein represented as having given.
(2) The enrolment of such person may be proved by the production of the original or a copy of his
enrolment paper purporting to be certified to be a true copy by the officer having the custody of the
enrolment paper or service record.
108. Presumption as to certain documents.—(1) A letter, return or other document respecting the
service of any person in, or the dismissal, removal or discharge of any person from, any unit of the Force,
or respecting the circumstances of any person not having served in, or belonged to, any unit of the Force,
if purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the Central Government or the Director-General, or by any
prescribed officer, shall be evidence of the facts stated in such letter, return or other document.
(2) A Force List or Gazette purporting to be published by authority shall be evidence of the status and
rank of the officers, subordinate officers therein mentioned, and of any appointment held by them and of
the battalion, unit, or branch of the Force to which they belong.
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(3) Where a record is made in any battalion book in pursuance of this Act or of any rules made
thereunder or otherwise in the discharge of official duties, and purports to be signed by the commanding
officer or by the officer whose duty it is to make such record, such record shall be evidence of the facts
therein stated.
(4) A copy of any record in any office of the Force purporting to be certified to be a true copy by the
officer having custody of such book shall be evidence of such record.
(5) Where any person subject to this Act is being tried on a charge of desertion or of absence without
leave, and such person has surrendered himself into the custody of any officer or other person subject to
this Act, or any unit of the Force, or has been apprehended by such officer or person, a certificate
purporting to be signed by such officer, or by the commanding officer of the unit to which such person
belongs or is attached, as the case may be, and stating the fact, date and place of such surrender or
apprehension, and the manner in which he was dressed, shall be evidence of the matters so stated.
(6) Where any person subject to this Act is being tried on a charge of desertion or of absence without
leave and such person has surrendered himself into the custody of, or has been apprehended by, a police
officer not below the rank of an officer in charge of a police station, a certificate purporting to be signed
by such police officer and stating the fact, date and place of such surrender or apprehension and the
manner in which he was dressed shall be evidence of the matters so stated.
(7) (a) Any document purporting to be a report under the hand of a Government scientific expert to
whom this sub-section applies, upon any matter or thing duly submitted to him for examination or
analysis and report in the course of any proceeding under this Act, may be used as evidence in any
inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Act.
(b) The Force Court may, if it thinks fit, summon and examine any such expert as to the subject
matter of his report.
(c) Where any such expert is summoned by a Force Court and he is unable to attend personally, he
may, unless the Court has expressly directed him to appear personally, depute an officer who is
conversant with the facts of the case to depose in the Court on his behalf.
(d) This sub-section applies to the Government scientific experts, for the time being specified in subsection (4) of section 293 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).
109. Reference by accused to Government officer.—(1) If at any trial for desertion or absence
without leave, over-staying leave or not rejoining when warned for service, the accused person states in
his defence any sufficient or reasonable excuse for his unauthorised absence, and refers in support thereof
to any officer in the service of the Government, or if it appears that any such officer is likely to prove or
disprove the said statement in the defence, the Court shall address such officer and adjourn the
proceedings until his reply is received.
(2) The written reply of any officer so referred to shall, if signed by him, be received in evidence and
have the same effect as if made on oath before the Court.
(3) If the court is dissolved before the receipt of such reply or if the Court omits to comply with the
provisions of this section, the convening officer may, at his discretion, annul the proceedings and order a
fresh trial.
110. Evidence of previous convictions and general character.—(1) When any person subject to
this Act has been convicted by a Force Court of any offence, such Force Court may inquire into, and
receive, and record evidence of any previous convictions of such person, either by a Force Court or by a
criminal court, or any previous award of punishment under section 56 or section 58, and may further
inquire into and record the general character of such person and such other matters as may be prescribed.
(2) Evidence received under this section may be either oral, or in the shape of entries in, or certified
extracts from, books of Force Courts or other official records; and it shall not be necessary to give notice
before trial to the person tried that evidence as to his previous convictions or character will be received.
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(3) At a summary Force Court, the officer holding the trial may, if he thinks fit, record any previous
convictions against the offender, his general character, and such other matters as may be prescribed, as of
his own knowledge, instead of requiring them to be proved under the foregoing provisions of this section.
111. Lunacy of accused.—(1) Whenever, in the course of a trial by a Force Court, it appears to the
Court that the person charged is by reason of unsoundness of mind incapable of making his defence, or
that he committed the act alleged but was by reason of unsoundness of mind incapable of knowing the
nature of the act or knowing that it was wrong or contrary to law, the Court shall record a finding
accordingly.
(2) The presiding officer of the Court, or, in the case of a Summary Force Court, the officer holding
the trial, shall forthwith report the case to the confirming officer, or to the authority empowered to deal
with its finding under section 129, as the case may be.
(3) The confirming officer to whom the case is reported under sub-section (2) may, if he does not
confirm the finding, take steps to have the accused person tried by the same or another Force Court for the
offence with which he was charged.
(4) The authority to whom the finding of a Summary Force Court is reported under sub-section (2)
and a confirming officer confirming the finding in any case so reported to him shall order the accused
person to be kept in custody in the prescribed manner and shall report the case for the orders of the
Central Government.
(5) On receipt of a report under sub-section (4), the Central Government may order the accused
person to be detained in a lunatic asylum or other suitable place of safe custody.
112. Subsequent fitness of lunatic accused for trial.—Where any accused person, having been
found by reason of unsoundness of mind to be incapable of making his defence, is in custody or under
detention under section 111, any officer prescribed in this behalf, may—
(a) if such person is in custody under sub-section (4) of section 111, on the report of a medical
officer that he is capable of making his defence, or
(b) if such person is detained in a jail under sub-section (5) of section 111, on a certificate of the
Inspector-General of Prisons, and if such person is detained in a lunatic asylum under the said subsection, on a certificate of any two or more of the visitors of such asylum and if he is detained in any
other place under that sub-section, on a certificate of the prescribed authority, that he is capable of
making his defence,
take steps to have such person tried by the same or another Force Court for the offence with which he was
originally charged or, if the offence is a civil offence, by a criminal court.
113. Transmission to Central Government of orders under section 112.—A copy of every order
made by an officer under section 112 for the trial of the accused shall forthwith be sent to the Central
Government.
114. Release of lunatic accused.—Where any person is in custody under sub-section (4) of section
111 or under detention under sub-section (5) of that section,—
(a) if such person is in custody under the said sub-section (4), on the report of a medical officer,
or
(b) if such person is detained under the said sub-section (5), on a certificate from any of the
authorities mentioned in clause (b) of section 112 that in the judgment of such officer or authority
such person may be released without danger of his doing injury to himself or to any other person,
the Central Government may order that such person be released or detained in custody or transferred to a
public lunatic asylum if he has not already been sent to such an asylum.
115. Delivery of lunatic accused to relatives.—Where any relative or friend of any person who is in
custody under sub-section (4) of section 111 or under detention under sub-section (5) of that section
desires that he should be delivered to his care and custody, the Central Government may, upon application
by such relative or friend and, on his giving security to the satisfaction of that Government that the person
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delivered shall be properly taken care of, and, prevented from doing injury to himself or to any other
person, and be produced for the inspection of such officer, and at such times and places, as the Central
Government may direct, order such person to be delivered to such relative or friend.
116. Order for custody and disposal of property pending trial.—When any property regarding
which any offence appears to have been committed, or which appears to have been used for the
commission of any offence, is produced before a Force Court during a trial, the Court may make such
order as it thinks fit for the proper custody of such property pending the conclusion of the trial, and if the
property is subject to speedy or natural decay may, after recording such evidence as it thinks necessary,
order it to be sold or otherwise disposed of.
117. Order for disposal of property regarding which offence is committed.—(1) After the
conclusion of a trial before any Force Court, the Court or the officer confirming the finding or sentence of
such Force Court, or any authority superior to such officer, or, in the case of a Summary Force Court
whose finding or sentence does not require confirmation, an officer not below the rank of Additional
Deputy Inspector-General within whose command the trial was held, may make such order as it or he
thinks fit for the disposal by destruction, confiscation, delivery to any person claiming to be entitled to
possession thereof, or otherwise, of any property or document produced before the Court or in its custody,
or regarding which any offence appears to have been committed or which has been used for the
commission of any offence.
(2) Where any order has been made under sub-section (1) in respect of property regarding which an
offence appears to have been committed, a copy of such order signed and certified by the authority
making the same may, whether the trial was held within India or not, be sent to a magistrate within whose
jurisdiction such property for the time being is situated, and such magistrate shall thereupon cause the
order to be carried into effect as if it were an order passed by him under the provisions of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).
(3) In this section, the term “property” includes, in the case of property regarding which an offence
appears to have been committed, not only such property as has been originally in the possession or under
the control of any person, but also any property into or for which the same may have been converted or
exchanged, and anything acquired by such conversion or exchange whether immediately or otherwise.
118. Powers of Force Court in relation to proceedings under this Act.—Any trial by a Force
Court under the provisions of this Act shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of
sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) and the Force Court shall be deemed to be a
court within the meaning of sections 345 and 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).
119. Tender of pardon to accomplies.—(1) With a view to obtaining the evidence of any person
supposed to have been directly or indirectly concerned in or privy to an offence triable by a Force Court
other than a Summary Force Court under this Act, the commanding officer, the convening officer or the
Force Court, at any stage of the investigation or inquiry into or the trial of, the offence, may tender a
pardon to such person on condition of his making a full and true disclosure of the whole of the
circumstances within his knowledge relating to the offence and to every other person concerned, whether
as principal or abettor, in the commission thereof.
(2) The commanding officer or the convening officer who tenders a pardon under sub-section (1)
shall record—
(a) his reasons for so doing;
(b) whether the tender was or was not accepted by the person to whom it was made,
and shall, on application made by the accused, furnish him with a copy of such record free of cost.
(3) Every person accepting a tender of pardon made under sub-section (1)—
(a) shall be examined as a witness by the commanding officer of the accused and in the
subsequent trial, if any;
(b) may be detained in Force custody until the termination of the trial.
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120. Trial of person not complying with conditions of pardon.—(1) Where, in regard to a person
who has accepted a tender of pardon made under section 119, the Judge Attorney, or as the case may be,
the Deputy Judge Attorney-General or the Additional Judge Attorney-General or the officer approved
under section 95, certifies that in his opinion such person has, either by wilfully concealing anything
essential or by giving false evidence, not complied with the conditions on which the tender was made,
such person may be tried for the offence in respect of which the pardon was so tendered or for any other
offence of which he appears to have been guilty in connection with the same matter, and also for the
offence of giving false evidence:
Provided that such person shall not be tried jointly with any of the other accused.
(2) Any statement made by such person accepting the tender of pardon and recorded by his
commanding officer or Force Court may be given in evidence against him at such trial.
(3) At such trial, the accused shall be entitled to plead that he has complied with the condition upon
which such tender was made; in which case it shall be for the prosecution to prove that the condition has
not been complied with.
(4) At such trial, the Force Court shall, before arraignment, ask the accused whether he pleads that he
has complied with the conditions on which the tender of pardon was made.
(5) If the accused does so plead, the Court shall record the plea and proceed with the trial and it shall,
before giving its finding on the charge, find whether or not the accused has complied with the conditions
of the pardon, and, if it finds that he has so complied, it shall give a verdict of not guilty.