Defence Act, 1954

Swearing of court.

199.—(1) When a court-martial is constituted with the proper number of officers who are not objected to or the objections to whom have been over-ruled, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—

(a) an oath in the prescribed form shall be administered by the prescribed person to each member of the court-martial;

(b) an oath in the prescribed form shall be administered by the prescribed person to the judge-advocate, to every officer in attendance for the purposes of instruction, and to every interpreter and shorthand writer or other note-taker in attendance.

(2) If a person by this section required to take an oath objects to take an oath or is objected to as incompetent to take an oath, the court-martial shall, if satisfied of the sincerity of the objection or, where the competence of a person to take an oath is objected to, of the oath having no binding effect on the conscience of such person, permit such person, instead of being sworn, to make a solemn declaration in the prescribed form, and for the purposes of this Act such declaration shall be deemed to be an oath.

(3) For the purposes of this section, different forms of oath and declaration may be prescribed for members of a court-martial, a judge-advocate, officers attending for instruction, interpreters and shorthand writers or other note-takers, and different persons may be prescribed to administer oaths and to take declarations.