India, July 30 -- Three of the 11 benches of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) are functioning without any member, as per information submitted by the Ministry of Defence to the Lok Sabha last week. The Srinagar Bench, which is at present functioning from Jammu, along with the Jabalpur Bench and the Guwahati Bench, lack both their sanctioned member positions. The figures presented by the junior minister of Modi Cabinet Sanjay Seth in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on July 24, show the status of members as well as staff of the Principal Bench of the Tribunal located in New Delhi and all other Regional Benches. While the Principal Bench has its entire sanctioned strength of six members, it continues to suffer from a serious shortage of staff. The sanctioned strength of staff is 65, but there are only 27 persons.
In the Regional Benches, Chandigarh is operating with five members, with a sanctioned strength of six, while 26 out of its 63 sanctioned staff positions are lying vacant. In Lucknow, four sanctioned members are working, while two sanctioned posts are vacant, and only 26 out of 57 sanctioned staff posts are being occupied. Mumbai Bench is working with its sanctioned members but has 12 staff vacancies out of a sanctioned strength of 33. Kochi and Chennai are operating with one member only, while one member's post is sanctioned and vacant in both the benches. In Kochi, 15 staff posts are vacant out of 35 sanctioned strength, while in Chennai 15 out of 24 sanctioned staff posts are vacant.
While all member positions are occupied in the Jaipur Bench, there is still a shortage of staff members with 16 vacancies in comparison to 25 sanctioned positions. The Srinagar Bench, now working out of Jammu, does not have any members occupying the positions and has only four vacant staff positions in comparison to 14 sanctioned positions. Likewise, the Jabalpur Bench is working without any member while having three staff vacancies against a sanctioned strength of 14. The Guwahati Bench is also working without any member. As per the information put forth by Parliament, there are 22 vacancies among the staff members when the sanctioned number of staff is only 12. The Kolkata Bench has one member and one vacancy in members' positions. It has 23 vacancies for staff positions against 17 sanctioned positions.
It can be seen that while the Principal Bench and benches at Mumbai and Jaipur have been staffed fully, several other regional benches are continuing with several vacancies. In some of the three benches, many do not have any members, there is one vacancy in the member's post in Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata. Personnel shortage continues to be prevalent in the Tribunal, the maximum being seen in the Principal Bench, followed by Lucknow and Chandigarh. This information has been provided by the Ministry of Defence in reply to a query in the Lok Sabha relating to the functioning of the Armed Forces Tribunal and the availability of manpower in various benches of the Tribunal.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.