Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 6

Set up seven years ago to provide an ‘independent’ forum for redressal of grievances for ‘quick dispensation’ of justice to armed forces personnel, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) is facing a massive shortage of judicial members. Of the eight Benches, only three are functional. Making matters worse, one of these could become non-functional this month.The AFT has eight Benches across the country, with each Bench comprising two or three courts. Each court is held by two members— a judicial member, who is a retired judge of a High Court, and an administrative member, who is a senior retired defence officer.The three functional  benches include the ones at Chandigarh and Lucknow. The judicial member of the Guwahati Bench is functioning as officiating chairman and travels between New Delhi and Guwahati. Consequently, either Bench is functional at one time. A ninth Bench at Jammu has been approved, but is yet to be notified. This has left armed forces personnel, including ex-servicemen and disabled soldiers, without any effective means of seeking relief.The AFT is required to have 17 judicial members, but is doing with just five. The sole judicial member at Chandigarh will retire this month. The number of administrative members is the same.When the AFT came into being, the number of pending cases was 9,449, according to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence. By 2015, the pendency had risen to a staggering 16,138. “The number of cases being filed has over the years also increased, particularly those related to Pay Commission anomalies. But then it is the disposal rate that matters, which has been dismal,” said a lawyer.While the AFT adjudicates on service matters pertaining to court martial verdicts, promotions, pay, allowances and pensions, it is the High Courts that decide on transfers and postings, summary punishments and verdicts of summary court martials. “This is a bizarre situation where smaller issues have been placed with a higher court and larger issues  before a court lower in the hierarchy,” another lawyer said.A vital issue regarding the functioning of the AFT pending before the Supreme Court is moving the AFT outside the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence and placing it under the Law Ministry. The Punjab and Haryana High Court last year accepted the argument that there was a conflict of interest in AFT members being selected by a panel in which the Defence Secretary was a member and the MoD paying these members salary and allowances.