Armed Forces Tribunal to be under Ministry of Law

Parliamentary Committee supports removing control of Defence Ministry over Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT)

Agreeing with the proposal that the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) should not function under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in its 18^th Report submitted this month has recommended that placing AFT under the Ministry of Law and Justice would go a long way in building a strong and independent institution.

It may be recalled that the Punjab & Haryana High Court in its decision in the Public Interest Litigation titled Maj Navdeep Singh Vs Union of India has already directed that the AFT should be placed under the Law Ministry and not the MoD to ensure independence and that keeping in view the separation of powers enshrined in the constitution, government should have minimal say in its functioning.

Deposing before the Parliamentary committee, all witnesses vouched for shifting of AFT from the purview of MoD. The Indian Ex-Services League (IESL) was of the view that the situation was subjective since AFT was to comment on the actions of the MoD itself. Col Satwant Singh opined that control should not be with MoD so that AFT can render judgements fearlessly without bias and without worrying about loss of hidden perks. Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice also informed the committee that the Department of Justice had already mooted establishment of a ‘Central Tribunals Division’. Another representative of the Law Ministry informed the committee that MoD did not want to leave control over AFT and the Defence Ministry is also filing appeals in almost each and every matter decided by AFT.

The Defence Services and Department of Ex-Servicemen welfare (DESW) have expressed reservation on grant of civil contempt powers to AFT while the Defence and Law Ministries have fully supported such powers. Experts associated with the issue have also expressed shock over the brazen manner in which DESW has stated before the committee that AFTs cannot disregard govt policy and that is the reason why decisions of AFT are not implemented. The Defence Secretary’s stand however has been appreciated wherein he has stated on record that challenging any authority is a fundamental right of every individual, whether he is in service or retired and he has to be provided reasonable opportunity to air grievances.