Supreme Court closes suo motu proceedings initiated in 2016 after Centre tells 23 members appointed in AFT

The Supreme Court on Friday closed the suo motu proceedings it had initiated in 2016 for filling up the vacancies in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) after the Centre informed 23 members have been appointed to the panel including 11 judicial members earlier this month. A bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh took on record the Centre's notification dated November 15 appointing 11 judicial members and 12 administrative members to the Tribunal.

The bench said, "At the relevant time, this court took suo motu cognizance of non-appointment of judicial members which has resulted in denial of justice in the absence of judicial members and orders of AFT were not enforced".

It said the Centre has informed the court about the notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on November 15, 2022 giving effect to these appointments.


"We take note of the notification dated November 15, 2022, and close the proceedings. If the bar association of the principal bench has any grievance, it should be raised before the appropriate forum to be considered as per law," the bench said.

On September 20, 2016, the top court had received two letters from the President of Indian Ex-Services League and Secretary of Armed Force Tribunal Bar Association, Lucknow about non-availability of Chairperson and Judicial Members in the Armed Forces Tribunal. It had ordered the letters to be treated as writ petitions and initiated suo motu (on its own) proceedings.