Section 171: Offences already disposed of not to be retried

(1) Where a person subject to service law under this Act-
(a) has been tried for an offence by a competent civil court or a court-martial under service law; or
(b) has been charged with an offence under service law and has had the charge dismissed, or has been found guilty on the charge on summary trial under this Act; or
(c) has had an offence condoned by his commanding officer,
he shall not be liable in respect of that offence to be tried by a court-martial or to have the case dealt with summarily under this Act.
(2) For the purposes of this section-
(a) a person shall not be deemed to have been tried by a court-martial if confirmation is withheld of a finding by the court-martial that he is guilty of the offence or of a finding by a court-martial that he is not guilty of the offence by reason of insanity;
(b) a case shall be deemed to have been dealt with summarily notwithstanding that the finding of the officer who summarily tried the charge has been quashed or varied on review thereof;
(c) an offence shall be deemed to have been condoned by the commanding officer of a person alleged to have committed the offence if, and only if, that officer or any officer authorised by him to act in relation to the alleged offence has, with knowledge of all circumstances, informed him that he will not be charged with the offence;
(d) a person ordered under section 100 of this Act to be imprisoned for an offence under that section shall be deemed to have been tried by a court-martial for the offence.
(3) Where confirmation of a finding of guilty of an offence is withheld, the accused shall not be tried again by a court-martial for that offence unless the order convening the latter court-martial is issued not later than 28 days after the promulgation of the decision to withhold confirmation.
(4) Except as provided in the foregoing provisions of this section, proceedings for an offence under this Act (whether summarily or before a court-martial) shall not be barred on the grounds of condonation if the condonation is done in excess of jurisdiction.