FORCES TRIBUNAL TOOTHLESS, SAYS BENCH HEAD

A K Mathur CHANDIGARH: The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) is a toothless body. And none other than head of its principal bench, Justice (retd) AK Mathur, says it. Justice Mathur, who was in Chandigarh on Saturday on the occasion of completion of one year of the Chandigarh bench of AFT, said that they are striving for execution of orders passed by them against army authorities after deciding the petitions of aggrieved defence personnel.

He also informed that in last one year the tribunal has decided around 4000 cases of the armed forced personnel and orders in 90 per cent of these cases were against the authorities, but they, specially army, is not bothering to comply with the tribunal's orders.

The revelation of the head of country's highest military tribunal are startling in view of the recent orders of the Supreme court for constituting Forces Grievances Redressal Commission with powers 'recommendatory in nature'. The revelations of Justice Mathur put a question mark over the fate of the upcoming commission.

While delivering lecture on the occasion, Justice Mathur stated that he had written to the Union government for empowering the tribunal with execution powers and to hear summary court martial proceedings so that the real purpose of constituting AFT can be served. He said, "we want powers to make pressure on the authorities to redress the grievances of the soldiers and to remove the arbitrariness in the authority's decisions".

Justice Mathur also informed that despite tribunal orders widows are struggling to get family pension, but the army brass is biggest hindrance in granting execution powers for the AFT. "Attitude of the army has to change, as the 'generals' should understand that tomorrow they may have to knock the AFT door for their grievances," Mathur added.

Justice Mathur also recounted various instances where he had to face difficulties to get a portion of building from the defence authorities for setting up of the regional benches of the tribunal.
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COMMENTS BY SOME SOME AGGRIEVED

(1) Agreeved (Bangalore) :- Why the facts of the case were not taken up with the COAS, CAS and CNS, with copies to all concerned. Their replies received should gave been posted. Better luck next time. Wg. Cdr ( Retd ) V P Sachar 22 Nov 10.

(2) Adil (Delhi) :- India is in a mess. The bureaucracy has buggered everything, and controls everything. We need to urgently flush the IAS/IPS/IRS/IDAS/etc etc down the toilet before they utterly ruin this nation. Really, they are nothing more than the STEAL frame of the nation!

(3) Singhal (Ghaziabad):- Why will the generals be comfortable with AFT ? The Generals think that they are feudal lords and they have god given mandate to do whatever with their fiefs and serfs. That apart, it will be worthwhile to collect data showing how many verdicts of AFT went against actions of uniformed officers and how many against actions/ decisions of civilian officers e.g. CDA or MOD. Only that will tell us the extent of the problem.
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(SOURCE - TOI CHANDIGARH)