108 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
a provision that every offence committed by a soldier must be tried by a civilan court. It might be that a recalcitrant solider who does not want to move with the troops to another station deliberately gets himself involved in some kind of a crime in order to stay back so that the civilian judge may try him. Should that be allowed ? If my friend himself were to exercise his mind on the subject he would find many other difficulties with which he would be confronted if he came to the dogmatic conclusion that all offences committed by a soldier against a civilian must be as a rule tried by a civilian court:
Pandit Kunzru : That was not my contention.
Dr. Ambedkar : Therefore, I say there can be no question of having any dogmatic opinion about this question. None can say that all such offences must be tried by the Military Court nor can anyone say that no such offence shall be tried by a civilian court. Consequently the Bill makes certain compromises which are in keeping with the necessities of the case. The trial of offences committed by a soldier which are to be tried by a military court are limited in number. They are murder, culpable homicide, etc.
Pandit Kunzru : By a military court or a criminal court ?
Dr. Ambedkar : By a criminal court. All others may be tried by court martial.
In connection with this there are other provisions in the Bill which must also be taken into consideration. They are clauses 125, 126 and 127. The discretion or the jurisdiction of the courts martial to try offences which are left to them is not absolute but it is governed by the provisions to which I have referred, namely, the military court under clause
125 may decide whether they want to try the offence. If the civil courts think that the offences should be tried by them they should under clause 126 obtain the permission of the Government of India and if the permission is granted they can proceed to try the offence. There is a further provision which in a sense is rather an extraordinary thing, namely, “Successive trial”. If it was found that the offence was a grave or serious one but the court martial which was permitted to try the offence let off the man with a light punishment, then