Armed Forces Tribunal’s Chandigarh Bench has highest number or orders pending for execution amongst all 11 Benches

Chandigarh, Aug 09
Among the 5,802 orders of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) pending for execution by the Ministry of Defence MoD), the Chandigarh Bench accounts for the highest number of such cases in the Tribunal’s 11 Benches across the country. The Bench has jurisdiction over the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, a region that has among the highest concentrations of serving as well retired armed forces personnel.
The pendency may reduce with the Tribunal’s Larger Bench’s recent judgment that the Tribunal possesses the powers of contempt in case there is wilful non-compliance by the respondents, giving it the much-needed teeth to get its orders implemented. According to available data, 2,591 applications for execution are pending before the Chandigarh Bench, followed by 1.084, in the Principal Bench at New Delhi and 866 in the Lucknow Bench. The lowest pendency is eight applications in the Guwahati Bench and nine in the Kolkata Bench.
The pendency is due to the judgments and orders of the AFT being ignored by the MoD. The premise was that the AFT, unlike Supreme Court and the High Courts, did not possess the powers of initiating action for contempt, making it powerless.
Sources said that the AFT’s judgment is being examined by the MoD for further action. The issue of non-compliance of orders has also been raised by various AFT Bar Associations with the Principal Bench as well as the MoD. The larger Bench was constituted in the year 2014 when a two-member bench at Delhi had expressed apprehensions in following a judgment of the Kerala High Court which had directed the Kochi Bench to invoke powers of contempt in case of non-compliance by defence authorities.
The landmark judgment running into more than 500 pages with appendices and perhaps the longest in the tribunal’s history, interpreted Section 29 of the AFT Act and Rule 25 of the AFT Rules to hold that the legislature did not intend keeping the AFT toothless. The Bench, comprising Justice Anu Malhotra, Lt Gen CP Mohanty and Rear Admiral Dhiren Vig observed that more than 5,000 of the Tribunal’s orders are lying unimplemented without any stay from the High Court or the Supreme Court.
The bunch matter referred to the larger bench included cases filed by Lt Col Mukul Dev in the year 2014 at the Kolkata Bench and suo-moto contempt proceedings initiated by the Chandigarh Bench.
Marathon hearings were held in the case in April and May this year with Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee along with Anil Gautam, representing the government and Rajiv Manglik representing the litigants. The court had appointed lawyers Rajshekhar Rao and Navdeep Singh from the Delhi and the Punjab and Haryana High Courts, respectively, to assist the larger bench as amici curiae without taking sides.
In the past, the Punjab and Haryana Court has come down heavily upon the MoD for non-implementation of the AFT’s orders. The Supreme Court and various high courts have also passed strong observations against the MoD for filing frivolous appeals against disabled personnel and other pensioners in settled matters.
The approach of the MoD has also drawn flak from the government’s own panels and committees.