Blitz Bureau
THE Supreme Court has suggested that additional circuit Benches of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) could be set up in places such as Shimla in Himachal Pradesh to ease the heavy workload pending before such tribunals, according to Bar and Bench. The setting up of such additional Benches could also ease the woes of litigants from areas such as Shimla, who may otherwise have to travel all the way to Chandigarh if their case needs to be heard by the AFT.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and NK Singh was hearing a plea by the Madras Bar Association regarding issues plaguing tribunals, including AFTs, across India. The court on January 6 asked the Centre to consider the aspect of setting up additional AFT Benches.
It also asked the Government to give information on status of vacancies across existing AFT Benches.
“We have impressed upon Attorney General (AG) to furnish current status of different types of vacancies in different tribunals and details of ongoing selection process and status of stages of the process. We have also impressed upon Mr. Singh and others to give suggestions to AG regarding improving working conditions of tribunals and forming circuit Benches to provide easy access to justice. Let the suggestions be given under four weeks and let the matter be placed after six weeks,” the court ordered.
The court proceeded to seek information from the Central Government on the total pendency of cases before AFTs and the corresponding requirement of Benches to deal with such a caseload.
