New Delhi: The Army wants to end the service of a Major accused of carrying on extramarital relationships with the wives of two fellow officers. It has chosen administrative action over a court-martial.
The Army served the officer a show-cause notice on August 10 under Army Rules 19 and 14, asking him to explain why he shouldn't be dismissed from service without a court-martial. The notice says the circumstances make a court-martial inexpedient.
He took the matter to the Armed Forces Tribunal's Principal Bench in New Delhi, hoping to halt the process. The tribunal refused. On October 14, a bench of Justice Rajendra Menon and Lieutenant General CP Mohanty told him to put his objections in his reply to the notice. But it also gave him something to work with: the army must hand over the Court of Inquiry's findings and the proceedings of the charge hearing. He had asked for both.
A Complaint From His Then-Wife
It began in August 2023, when his then-wife complained to the Additional Directorate General of Discipline and Vigilance at Army headquarters. She alleged adultery, substance abuse and neglect. She also alleged he'd had relationships with four women, two of them the wives of fellow Army officers.
In October 2023, Headquarters 55 (I) Mechanised Brigade convened a Court of Inquiry into conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, including the claims regarding the officers' wives. More enquiries followed.
The Major has fought the process from the start. He says the Army broke Army Rule 180, which protects personnel whose character or military reputation an inquiry could affect. The women named in the allegations, and their husbands, were never summoned or examined, he says, despite his repeated requests.
He also points to what he calls procedural irregularities in how his electronic devices were seized, including mobile phones, a laptop and pen drives, and in the search of his married accommodation.
The Army chose administrative action.
In March 2025, the Army framed a tentative chargesheet under Sections 45 and 63 of the Army Act. Next, the Army prepared a summary of evidence and an additional summary of evidence. The officer again asked that the inquiry examine the women named in the allegations.
Then came the show cause notice, proposing administrative termination instead of a court-martial.
In his application to the tribunal, the major argued the proposed action can't stand legally because it rests on inquiry and evidence proceedings he says were flawed. He also asked for copies of the inquiry findings and opinion under Army Rule 184 and the hearing-of-charge proceedings under Army Rule 22. He says he never got them.
Complaint Withdrawn After Divorce
The officer told the tribunal that his marriage ended in a mutual divorce on March 30, 2026, by order of the Judicial Magistrate First Class in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir.
As part of the compromise, his application says his former wife withdrew the complaint she'd filed in August 2023. The agreement records that she said she never meant to file it. She said it came during a bitter stretch in the marriage, and she had no undeniable grounds for it. She also promised to give a statement to the authorities.
The Major argued that the withdrawal further weakens the case for terminating his service.
The tribunal wasn't persuaded to halt anything. It told him to submit his objections to the show cause notice and told the Army to hand over the documents he'd asked for.
The administrative proceedings are separate from the tribunal's decision on interim relief. And nothing has been proved yet: no court-martial or final adjudication, in the proceedings described in the application, has established the allegations against him.