Chapter IV PUNISHMENTS

1. (1) Punishments may be inflicted in respect of offences committed by persons subject to this Act and convicted by Security Force Courts according to the scale following, that is to say,—
   • (a) death;
   • (b) imprisonment which may be for the term of life or any other lesser term but excluding imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months in Force custody;
   • (c) dismissal from the service;
   • (d) imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months in Force custody;
   • (e) reduction to the ranks or to a lower rank or grade or place in the list of their rank in the case of an under-officer;
   • (f) forfeiture of seniority of rank and forfeiture of all or any part of the service for the purpose of promotion;
   • (g) forfeiture of service for the purpose of increased pay, pension or any other prescribed purpose;
   • (h) fine, in respect of civil offences;
     • (i) severe reprimand or reprimand except in the case of persons below the rank of an under-officer;
   • (j) forfeiture of pay and allowances for a period not exceeding three months for an offence committed on active duty;
   • (k) forfeiture in the case of person sentenced to dismissal from the service of all arrears of pay and allowances and other public money due to him at the time of such dismissal;
   • (l) stoppage of pay and allowances until any proved loss or damage occasioned by the offence for which he is convicted is made good.
2. (2) Each of the punishments specified in sub-section (1) shall be deemed to be inferior in degree to every punishment preceding it in the above scale.

Subject to the provisions of this Act, a Security Force Court may, on convicting a person subject to this Act of any of the offences specified in sections 14 to 45 (both inclusive) award either the particular punishment with which the offence is stated in the said sections to be punishable or, in lieu thereof, any one of the punishments lower in the scale set out in section 48 regard being had to the nature and degree of the offence

A sentence of a Security Force Court may award in addition to, or without any one other punishment, the punishment specified in clause (c) of sub-section (1) of section 48, and any one or more of the punishments specified in clauses (e) to (l) (both inclusive) of that sub-section.

When on active duty any enrolled person has been sentenced by a Security Force Court to dismissal or to imprisonment whether combined with dismissal or not, the prescribed officer may direct that such person may be retained to serve in the ranks, and such service shall be reckoned as part of his term of imprisonment if any.

Punishments may also be inflicted in respect of offences committed by persons subject to this Act without the intervention of a Security Force Court in the manner stated in sections 53 and 55.

Subject to the provisions of section 54, a Commandant or such other officer as is, with the consent of Central Government, specified by the Director-General may, in the prescribed manner, proceed against a person subject to this Act, otherwise than as an officer or a sub-ordinate officer, who is charged with an offence under this Act and award such person, to the extent prescribed, one or more of the following punishments, that is to say,—

1. (a) imprisonment in Force custody up to twenty-eight days;
2. (b) detention up-to twenty-eight days;
3. (c) confinement to the lines up to twenty-eight days;
4. (d) extra guards or duties;
5. (e) deprivation of any special position or special emoluments or any acting rank or reduction to a lower grade of pay;
6. (f) forfeiture of good service and good conduct pay;
7. (g) severe reprimand or reprimand;
8. (h) fine up to fourteen days pay in any one month;
   • (i) deductions from his pay of any sum required to make good such compensation for any expense, loss, damage or destruction caused by him to the Central Government, or to any building or property as may be awarded by his Commandant.

1. (1) In the case of an award of two or more of the punishments specified in clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d) of section 53, the punishments specified in clause (c) or clause (d) shall take effect only at the end of the punishment specified in clause (a) or clause (b).
2. (2) When two or more of the punishments specified in the said clauses (a), (b) and (c) are awarded to a person conjointly, or when already undergoing one or more of the said punishments, the whole extent of the punishments shall not exceed in the aggregate forty-two days.
3. (3) The punishments specified in the said clauses (a), (b) and (c) shall not be awarded to any person who is of the rank of an under-officer or was, at the time of committing the offence for which he is punished, of such rank.
4. (4) The punishment specified in clause (g) of section 53 shall not be awarded to any person below the rank of an under-officer.

1. (1) An officer not below the rank of the Deputy Inspector-General or such other officer as is, with the consent of the Central Government, specified by the Director-General may, in the prescribed manner, proceed against a person of or below the rank of a subordinate officer who is charged with an offence under this Act and award one or more of the following punishments, that is to say,—
   • (a) forfeiture of seniority, or in the case of any of them whose promotion depends upon the length of service forfeiture of service for the purpose of promotion for a period not exceeding twelve months, but subject to the right of the accused previous to the award to elect to be tried by a Security Force Court;
   • (b) severe reprimand or reprimand;
   • (c) stoppage of pay and allowances until any proved loss or damage occasioned by the offence of which he is convicted is made good.
2. (2) In every case in which punishment has been awarded under sub-section (1), certified true copies of the proceedings shall be forwarded, in the prescribed manner, by the officer awarding the punishment to the prescribed superior authority who may, if the punishment awarded appears to him to be illegal, unjust or excessive, cancel, vary or remit the punishment and make such other direction as may be appropriate in the circumstances of the case.

1. (1) Whenever any weapon or part of a weapon, or ammunition, forming part of the equipment of a unit of the Force, is lost or stolen, an officer not below the rank of the Commandant of a battalion may, after making such enquiry as he thinks fit and subject to the rules, impose a collective fine upon the subordinate officers, under-officers and men of such unit, or upon so many of them as, in his judgment, should be held responsible for such loss or theft.
2. (2) Such fine shall be assessed as a percentage on the pay of the individuals on whom it falls.