Armed Forces Tribunal Bench starts work

The Armed Forces Tribunal Chandigarh,bench started functioning from Monday. Presently,one bench out of the total three-bench court is operating which comprises of one judicial and one administrative member.

The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT),Chandigarh,bench started functioning from Monday. Presently,one bench out of the total three-bench court is operating which comprises of one judicial and one administrative member. The Bench took up a pension case pertaining to 2008 on its first day. No case has been transferred from the other courts so far.

The present members at the Chandigarh Bench include Justice Ghanshyam Prasad,former judge of Patna High Court Lieutenant General A S Bahia,former Director General Military Operations and Quarter Master General. The other two administrative members include Lieutenant General H S Panag,former GOC-in-C of Northern and Central Command and Lieutenant General N S Brar,former Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff. Two more retired High Court Judges will be appointed in due course. Its geographic jurisdiction will extend to Punjab,Haryana,Himachal Pradesh,Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh.

Lieutenant General Bahia said it would take some weeks for the AFT at Chandigarh to function in its full capacity as the other members would be joining shortly.

The Tribunal has original jurisdiction over complaints and disputes regarding all service matters as also appellate jurisdiction over appeals arising out of verdicts of Court Martial. Retired personnel and their heirs dependents and successors can have access to the Tribunal with regard to all service matters.

The principal bench at Delhi became functional an August 10 this year and subsequently regional benches at Chennai,Jaipur and Lucknow were inaugurated recently. The remaining 15 courts under the Tribunal are one regional bench each at Jaipur,Mumbai,Chennai,Kochi,Kolkata and Gauhati which would be inaugurated in the coming months.

To fulfil the long standing need of dispensing speedy justice to the Armed Forces personnel,the Parliament had passed the bill to establish the Armed Forces Tribunal in July 2007. The AFT Act 2007 came into effect on June 15,2008 and the tribunal was inaugurated by the President,Pratibha Patil on August 8 this year.

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