(1) This Act may be called the Indian Army (Suspension of Sentences) Act, 1917, and shall be construed as one with the principal Act.

(2) It shall remain in force during the continuance of the present war, and for a period of six months thereafter.

In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,

(1) committed includes committal to prison and confinement in military custody, and imprisonment includes such confinement;

(2) competent military authority means a superior military authority, or any general or other officer not below the rank of field officer duly authorised by a superior military authority;

(3) principal Act means the Indian Army Act, 8 of 1911;

(4) sentence means a sentence of transportation or imprisonment, whether originally passed on a person subject to the principal Act, or passed by way of reduction or commutation; and sentenced has the corresponding meaning;

(5) superior military authority means any of the following, namely: the Commander-in Chief in India or the Officer Commanding the Army, Army Corps, Division or independent Brigade 1[in which an offender is for the time being serving, or within the limits of whose command an offender who has been committed is for the time being undergoing his sentence] and includes the Officer Commanding-in-Chief of any force employed on active service or any General Officer Commanding an army comprised in that force.

(1) Where a person subject to the principal Act is sentenced the confirming officer when confirming the sentence, or, in the case of a sentence which does not require confirmation, the officer holding the trial or the President of the Court-martial when passing sentence may, notwithstanding anything in the principal Act, direct that such person be not committed 2[* * *] until the orders of a superior military authority have been obtained.

(2) A superior military authority may, in the case of any such offender so sentenced,

(a) direct that such offender shall not be committed until his orders have been obtained;

(b) suspend the sentence whether or not the offender has already been committed.

(3) Where a sentence is suspended under this Act before the offender has been committed, he shall be released if in custody, and, notwithstanding anything in the principal Act, the sentence shall not begin to run until the offender is committed under that sentence.

(4) Where a sentence is suspended under this Act after the offender has been committed, he shall be discharged and the currency of the sentence suspended until he is again committed under the same sentence.

(5) An offender, whose sentence has been suspended under this Act, whether or not the sentence is subsequently remitted, may be required 3[by a superior military authority] to serve in a corps or department other than that in which he was serving when sentenced.

(6) Where a sentence has been suspended under this Act, the case may at any time, and shall at intervals of not more than 4[four] months, be reconsidered by a competent military authority, and if on any such reconsideration it appears to the competent military authority that the conduct of the offender since his conviction has been such as to justify a remission of the sentence, he shall remit it.

(7) A superior military authority may, at any time whilst a sentence is suspended under this Act, order that the offender be committed, and thereupon the sentence shall cease to be suspended 5[* * *].

6[(8) Where an offender, whilst a sentence on him is suspended under this Act, is sentenced for any other offence, then

(a) if the further sentence is also suspended under this Act, the authority ordering such suspension may direct that the two sentences shall run either concurrently or consecutively; provided that the aggregate term of imprisonment to be served under two or more sentences shall not exceed fourteen consecutive years;

(b) if the further sentence exceeds three months and is not suspended under this Act, the offender shall be deemed to have been committed on the previous sentence from the date on which the further sentence was passed unless a superior military authority otherwise directs;

(c) where the sentence for such other offence is a sentence of transportation, then whether or not that sentence is suspended, any previous sentence of imprisonment which has been suspended shall be avoided so far as the period of such imprisonment does not exceed that of the transportation.]

(9) The powers conferred by this Act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any powers as to the mitigation, remission or commutation of sentences conferred by the principal Act, and a superior military authority shall, as regards presons subject to that Act, be an authority having power to mitigate, remit or commute sentences under Section 7[112] of that Act.

8[(10) Sentences which are suspended under this Act when this Act ceases to be in force shall be deemed to be remitted.

(11) Where a punishment of a dismissal has been awarded by a court-martial in addition to a sentence to which this Act applies, the notwithstanding anything contained in the principal Act or in any rules made thereunder, such dismissal shall not take effect until the completion of the sentence or until this Act ceases to be in force, whichever is the earlier event:

Provided that, if a sentence is remitted under this Act, the punishment of dismissal shall also be remitted.]

1. Substituted by Act 18 of 1918, Section 2.

2. Omitted by Act 18 of 1918, Section 3.

3. Inserted by Act 18 of 1918, Section 3.

4. Substituted for three by Act 18 of 1918, Section 3.

5. Omitted by Act 18 of 1918, Section 3.

6. Substituted by Act 18 of 1918, Section 3.

7. Substituted for 99 by Act 18 of 1918, Section 3.

8. Inserted by Act 18 of 1918, Section 3.