Section 138: Administration of oaths and affirmations

(1) An oath shall be administered to every member of a court-martial and to any person in attendance on a court-martial as judge advocate, waiting member, shorthand writers and interpreters.
(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (6) of this section, a witness before a court-martial shall be examined on oath.
(3) Where a child of tender age called as a witness does not, in the opinion of the court-martial, understand the nature of an oath, his evidence may be received, though not given upon oath, if in the opinion of the court-martial he is possessed of sufficient intelligence to justify the reception of the evidence and understands the duty of speaking the truth.
(4) Where the evidence given by a child under subsection (3) of this section is given on behalf of the prosecution, the accused shall not be liable to be convicted upon that evidence alone, unless it is corroborated by some other material evidence in support thereof implicating the accused.
(5) An oath required to be administered under this section shall be in the prescribed form and shall be administered at the prescribed time by the prescribed person and in the prescribed manner.
(6) Where-
(a) a person, required by virtue of this Act to take an oath for the purposes of proceedings before a court-martial, objects to being sworn and states, as the ground of his objection, either that he has no religious belief or that the taking of oath is contrary to his religious belief; or
(b) it is not reasonably practicable to administer an oath to the person as aforesaid in the manner appropriate to his religious belief,
he shall be required to make a solemn affirmation in the prescribed form instead of taking an oath.