Cap. 220 Art. 50Desertion.

(1) Any person subject to military law who -

(a) deserts; or

(b) persuades or procures any person subject to military law to desert, shall, on conviction by court-martial, be liable to imprisonment or any less punishment provided by this Act:

Provided that a person shall not be liable to be imprisoned for more than two years unless -

(i) if the offence was against paragraph (a), he was on active service or under orders for active service at the time when it was committed; or

(ii) if the offence was an offence against paragraph (b), the person in relation to whom it was committed was on active service or under orders for active service at that time.

(2) For the purposes of this Act a person deserts who -

(a) leaves the service of the force or, when it is his duty to do so, fails to join or rejoin that service, with (in either case) the intention, subsisting at the time of the leaving or failure or formed thereafter, of remaining permanently absent from his duty; or

(b) being an officer enlists in or enters any part of the force without having resigned his commission, or being a man of the force enlists in or enters any part of the force without having been discharged from his previous enlistment; or

(c) absents himself without leave with intent to avoid serving at any place overseas, when he is liable so to serve, or to avoid service or any particular service when before the enemy; or

(d) being an officer or man of the territorial force, fails to appear at the time and place appointed for assembling on embodiment or at the time and place appointed on his being called out for special service, as the case may be, in accordance with directions given under article 26 or article 28, with the intention, subsisting at the time of failure or formed thereafter, of remaining permanently absent from duty, and references in this Act to desertion shall be construed accordingly.

(3) In addition to or in lieu of any punishment authorised by sub-article (1), the court-martial by whom a man of the regular force is convicted of desertion may direct that the whole or any part of his service previous to the period as respects which he is convicted of having been a deserter shall be forfeited.