Setting up AFT bench in J&K will reduce pendency: SC

New Delhi, Jan 6: The Supreme Court on Monday called for setting up Armed Forces Tribunal benches in Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh, to deal with the growing pendency of defence-related cases.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said at present AFT, Chandigarh, was burdened by a huge backlog from these states and setting up circuit benches at Jammu and Kashmir, Shimla and Dharamshala, would help in the speedy disposal of cases.

Refusing to blame the Centre alone for the delay in filling the vacancies in the AFTs, the bench told Attorney General R Venkataramani to explore the possibility of having circuit benches.

"There are sitting judges of this court who head committees. Even I head some of the committees which look after the appointment of members of the tribunals. Sometimes the workload is so much that the process gets delayed. We have to devise a mechanism so that a process for filling the vacancies gets started six months before the prospective vacancy arises in a tribunal," said Justice Surya Kant.

The top court asked the Centre to collate data on the total sanctioned strength of tribunals and vacancies in these quasi-judicial bodies and furnish suggestions on systematically filling these posts.

The Centre was further directed to furnish the details of the ongoing processes for filling the posts in the tribunals within four weeks.

The top court was hearing an application for a direction to the Centre to expeditiously appoint members of the AFT.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing as an intervenor, said one of the members was transferred from Chandigarh to Kolkata, and the position was lying vacant.

Venkataramani said the chairman of AFT, Chandigarh, could decide on setting up circuit benches and informed the process of filling posts in tribunals happened around the year. He said the vacancy in AFT, Chandigarh, would be filled soon.

On the challenge to the Tribunal Reforms Act of 2021, senior advocate Arvind Datar said the provisions of the 2017 Finance Act related to service conditions of members of tribunals which was struck down by this court and was reproduced in subsequent legislations.

The bench asked Datar to mention the issue before the Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for listing the issue.