In Brief
An Army soldier was court-martialled and dismissed from service with six months' imprisonment for cowardice after abandoning his post during a militant attack in Kashmir in 2006. He claimed he left to retaliate from behind a wall and was shot unconscious. The Supreme Court upheld his dismissal, finding his unconsciousness claim contradicted his detailed account of subsequent events. The Court held that soldiers cannot rely on past good conduct to excuse present duty failures; national integrity demands they rise to the occasion always. However, the Court waived the imprisonment term due to the gunshot injury he sustained and the long passage of time.
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