After OROP, Supreme Court to now look into vacancies in the Armed Forces Tribunals

The non-implementation of the One Rank One Pension scheme is not the only case in the Supreme Court which will have far-reaching consequences for the country’s armed forces. Yesterday, the apex court took suo motu cognisance of the vacancies in the Armed Forces Tribunals..At the epicentre of the controversy is a letter written in September this year by the Secretary of the AFT Bar Association. The letter highlights the poor state of affairs at the tribunal; for instance only five benches out of a possible seventeen were functioning in the country. .Yesterday, a Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, and DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao JJ treated the letter as a ‘writ petition’, and directed Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to submit a status report..Lamenting major issues such as the increased pendency of cases and the lack of “coercive means for execution of [the Tribunal’s] orders”, the letter also takes issue with the Tribunal functioning under the Ministry of Defence. .“Naturally, a Tribunal cannot be expected to rely for facilities, rule-making, administration and appointments on that very Ministry which is the opposite party in all litigation and against which all orders are supposed to be passed.”.The Bench seemed to be in agreement, and issued notice after converting the letter to a writ petition. Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh said he needed to seek further instructions on the matter and sought the matter to be listed on November 15. .The apex court then posted the matter for the same day.