Clause 51

every person subject to military law when so charged may be taken into military custody:Provided, that in every case where any officer or soldier not on active service remains in such military custody for a longer period than eight days without a court-martial for his trial being ordered to assemble, a special report of the necessity for further delay shall be made by his commanding officer in the manner prescribed; and a similar report shall be forwarded every eight days until a court-martial is assembled or the officer or soldier is released from custody;

“military custody” means, according to the usages of the service, the putting of the offender under arrest or the putting of him in confinement;

a provost marshal or assistant provost marshal, or an officer may order into military custody any officer or soldier, but no officer shall be arrested or detained otherwise than on the order of another officer;

without prejudice to paragraph (c), any officer may order into military custody an officer of inferior rank or any soldier, and any non-commissioned officer may order into military custody any soldier, and an officer may order into military custody any officer (though he be of higher rank) engaged in a quarrel, fray or disorder;

any order under either of paragraph (c) or (d) shall be obeyed, notwithstanding that the person giving the order and the person in respect of whom the order is given do not belong to the same corps, arm or branch of the service;

an officer or non-commissioned officer commanding a guard, or a provost marshal or assistant provost marshal, shall not refuse to receive or keep any person who is committed to his custody by any officer or non-commissioned officer, but it shall be the duty of the officer or non-commissioned officer who commits any person into custody to deliver at the time of such committal, or as soon as practicable, and in every case within twenty-four hours thereafter, to the officer, non-commissioned officer, provost marshal, or assistant provost marshal into whose custody the person is committed, an account in writing, signed by himself, of the offence with which the person so committed is charged;

the charge made against every person taken into military custody shall without unnecessary delay be investigated by the proper military authority, and, as soon as may be, either proceedings shall be taken for punishing the offence, or such person shall be discharged from custody.