Facing acute shortage, Armed Forces Tribunal gets six new judicial members

Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 13

 The central government has appointed six new judicial members to the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which has been facing critical shortage of judges for the past few years.

The new members appointed this week include Justice Bala Krishna Narayana, Justice Shashi Kant Gupta, Justice Rajiv Narain Raina, Justice K. Harilal, Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary and Justice Anjana Mishra.

According to sources two of the newly selected AFT members are already serving in different organisations, reportedly due the delay in the selection process. The fresh appointments come about a year after appointments of seven judicial as well as administrative members were last made in September 2020.

Close to 70 per cent of judicial and administrative posts in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) are lying vacant, with almost 19,000 cases pending before its various benches across the country.

Against the sanctioned strength of 34 judicial and administrative members only 11 are currently occupied, according to data placed before Parliament by the Ministry of Defence earlier this year.

The AFT has 11 benches comprising 17 courts located in different parts of the country. Each court is held by a judicial member, who should have served as a judge of the High Court and an administrative member, who should have served as a senior officer of the armed forces or a person having such qualifications as notified by the government.

The AFT is required to have 17 judicial members and an equal number of administrative members. The present strength, however, is only four judicial members, including the chairperson and six administrative members. The vacancies have resulted in several benches remaining non-functional.

Established in 2009, the AFT’s mandate is jurisprudence over matters related to the commission, appointments, enrolments, and conditions of service in respect of persons subject to the Army Act, the Navy Act, and the Air Force Act, and hear appeals arising out of orders, findings or sentences of courts-martial and disciplinary proceedings.

The Ministry’s data also showed that till February 28, 2021, a total of 18,829 cases were pending for disposal before its 11 benches. The highest pendency was before the Principal Bench at Delhi with 5,553 cases, followed by Chandigarh Bench with 4,512 cases and Jaipur Bench with 3,154 cases. Guwahati and Jabalpur benches had the lowest pendency with 104 and 347 cases, respectively.