The head of the Indian Army, General Bipin Rawat, has reinforced the army's ban on gay sex and adultery, insisting that recent law changes - including last year's historic Supreme Court decision decriminalising homosexuality in India - won't impact how they require soldiers to conduct themselves.
“We will not allow this to happen in the Army. LGBT issues… in the army, these are not acceptable," Rawat told a press conference, according to The Economic Times.
“We will still be dealing with them under various sections of the Army Act. [It] will not be allowed to happen in the Indian Army.”
He added: “We are not above the country’s law but when you join the Indian Army, some of the rights and privileges you enjoy are not what we have. Some things are different for us, but we are certainly not above the Supreme Court.
[It] will not be allowed to happen in the Indian Army.
“We will have to see how we take a call, let us also see how it comes into the society, whether it’s accepted or not… I can’t say what will happen two years down the road.”
Gay sex in the Indian armed forces will continue to be a prosecutable offence under the Army Act, the Navy Act and the Air Force Act, written into law in the 1950s, reports Pink News.
