The SC directive has
been under consideration ever since. But the matter got a fresh lease of life
with Law Minister Salman Khurshid's recent statement in Parliament that the
government was looking at the possibility of removing these tribunals from
under their parent ministries and putting them under the Ministry of Law.
Clash of interests is
the main reason why these tribunals need to be removed from under their
parent ministries. To give an instance, the members comprising the AFT use
the various facilities offered by the MoD, but are also required to pass
orders against the ministry in the cases coming to them. An RTI query by a
retired army officer revealed that the MoD funded AFT chairperson A.K.
Mathur's foreign trips worth lakhs of rupees. The AFT also makes use of the
infrastructure offered by the MoD to function: the land on which the AFTs are
constructed is given by the MoD. The ministry gives the AFT members
facilities such as the CSD (Canteen Stores Depot) cards. These are canteen
cards that can be used to procure grocery and other household items at
subsidised rates from all military canteens.
A senior retired army
officer working as an administrative member at one of the AFT benches told
this newspaper, "The AFTs should be under the Ministry of Law so that
they can give fair judgements. Litigants are always afraid that fairness will
go missing as the AFTs function from MoD land and do not have their own
premises. Funds for the AFTs are also sanctioned through the MoD. The CSD
cards given to the members are actually a privilege."
The Armed Forces
Tribunal enjoys the status of a High Court, and came into being in 2009. Each
court consists of a judicial member and an administrative member. The
administrative member of an AFT is always a retired senior officer, usually a
three-star officer. A source told this newspaper, "These retired
officers usually know the applicants approaching the Tribunal. This increases
the chances of the Tribunal's decisions being influenced. So their decisions
are unlikely to be fair. This debate to delink the AFT from the
administrative powers of the MoD has been going on for a long time."
Comments
On the face
of it, it appears to be a very valid and justified decision, and could help
in improving the prevailing state of the AFT judgements, besides the issues
highlighted above. It is hoped that it would also facilitate timely and
regular implementation of the AFT judgements, which presently are in a
pitiable state and are just not being implemented. They are actually at the
mercy of the bureaucratic callous attitude or of indifferent attitude of the
authorities responsible for their implementation, causing avoidable
sufferings to the appellants or the aggrieved parties. Col LK Anand Retd
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