CHANDIGARH: Almost a week after the
Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance over shortage of judicial members in the
Armed Force Tribunals (AFTs) that hear all cases related to defence forces, the Centre on Tuesday informed apex court that it had cleared the appointment of three members.
When the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, the solicitor general of India Ranjit Singh informed the apex court that appointments committee of the cabinet has cleared the appointment of three retired judges as judicial members of AFT.
The three names cleared are of Justice V K Shali, Justice Babu Mathew P Joseph, and Justice Karam Chand Puri. Justice Puri has retired from the Punjab and
Haryana high court and been cleared for Srinagar (Jammu) bench of the AFT. Justice Shali and Justice Mathew have been cleared for AFT's Delhi bench.
The solicitor general also informed the court that names of four more judges are also under process for appointment and Centre has received five more names for consideration. It was also stated that a former Chief Justice of Jharkhand high court is being considered for appointment as chairperson of the tribunal. After hearing the Centre's reply, the SC has deferred the hearing of the case.
On November 7, SC bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur, Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice L Nageswara Rao had sought status report about shortage of judicial members in AFT after taking cognizance of a letter they received from the secretary of the AFT's (principal bench) bar association in New Delhi. The letter stated that the delay in appointing judicial members had brought work at the tribunal to a standstill. At present only five benches are functional out of a total of 17 which has resulted into huge harassment to military personnel, disabled soldiers and even widows of defence personnel.
The letter to the Chief Justice stated that there is a total breakdown of the system of administration of justice for defence personnel and their families, not only because of not having enough judicial members but also because of arbitrary provisions of the AFT Act, 2007.
The bar in its letter alleged that the Centre has been claiming that there are not enough applicants for the posts but appointments already approved by the selection committee have not been notified.
The letter has raised some long-standing disputes as well. This includes the demand for taking AFT out of the Union ministry of defence (MoD) given that most cases are against the ministry, no judicial review for AFT orders making it the first and last court for litigants and the tribunal not having the power to enforce its orders.