Noting that would mitigate the difficulties faced by litigants from Himachal Pradesh, who are forced to travel all the way to Chandigarh for their AFT cases, the bench asked the Centre to consider setting up additional AFT benches

Satya Prakash Tribune News Service

The Supreme Court on Monday favoured setting up additional circuit benches of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in Shimla and other places to ease heavy workload on the tribunal.

“See if there can be a regional bench for Shimla etc., matters can go to Himachal (Pradesh),” a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said while hearing Madras Bar Association’s petition on issues relating to tribunals, including AFTs.

Noting that would mitigate the difficulties faced by litigants from Himachal Pradesh, who are forced to travel all the way to Chandigarh for their AFT cases, the bench asked the Centre to consider setting up additional AFT benches. It asked the Centre to furnish information on the status of vacancies in AFT benches across India, along with details of ongoing selection process.

However, Attorney General R Venkataramani said such administrative matters can be handled by the AFT chairman. “The chairman knows how to handle this. The work on the Chandigarh case is underway and will be completed soon. We will also provide a timeline chart. The tribunal selection process is an ongoing, year-round process,” he said.

“No one is saying only the Union (of India) is at fault. We can also think of a mechanism so that advance appointments are made before six months of retirement,” the bench noted.

The top court also asked senior advocate Vikas Singh and others to give suggestions in four weeks to the Attorney General on improving working conditions of tribunals and setting up circuit benches to provide easy access to justice to litigants and posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.

“One judge was transferred from Chandigarh and no one else was appointed,” Singh said, expressing concern over unfilled vacancies.