Defence Act, 1954

Evidence to be on oath.

200.—(1) Every witness before a court-martial shall be examined on oath which the president or other prescribed person shall administer in the prescribed form.

(2) If a person by this Act required as witness before a court-martial, or otherwise in respect of a court-martial, 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 the 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 solemn declaration shall be deemed to be an oath.