Exemption from Conscription Due to Having to Take Care of a Divorced Mother in the Light of Jurisprudential and Legal Principles and rules (with Emphasis on Binding Precedents Rendered by the General Board of the Administrative Justice Court)

In the fourth chapter of the Revised Public Service Act of 2013, the legislator has listed various types of exemptions for those subject to military service, one of which is exemption due to having to support relatives. According to Article 44(2) of this Act, "the sole caretaker of a mother who lacks support of a husband is exempted from mandatory military service." The legislator has recognized this type of exemption while refusing to exempt married conscripts for the purpose of taking care of their spouses and children by ratification of the Act entitled” How to Assist Families of Conscripts Who Lose the Ability to Provide for Them Because They Have to Perform Their Military Service”.This issue has given rise to a challenge concerning adoption of double standards in regard to the same subject in the Iranian legal system, and the current research has sought to examine these standards by investigating the "basis of legitimacy" of this type of exemption and the "standards" that govern it.The propositions resulting from this research are that, according to the binding precedent No. 1233 and 1234 rendered by the General Board of the Administrative Justice Court, this type of exemption is not dependent on the mothers' disability, need, etc, but purely on the real lack of a caretaker for the mothers of such conscripts and it is obvious that according to the principle of justice, the prohibition of unfair discrimination and the rule of a fortiori, granting such an exemption while married conscripts are not exempted, is not compatible with the principles and rules of jurisprudence and law and the legislator should act fairly by adopting an equal criterion regarding the two propositions mentioned above, and if it considers the exemption to be based on the necessity to provide maintenance and care, should extend it to both of these types of exemptions. Moreover, if he considers the mere fact of the dependents being female sufficient to exempt conscripts, it should apply this criterion to married conscripts as well.