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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has fully restored the jurisdiction of high courts to hear appeals challenging the judgments of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), something that had been barred by a 2015 order of a division bench of the top court.
A larger SC bench comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and B V Nagarathna also remanded back the appeals which were earlier dismissed by various HCs over lack of jurisdiction. The SC has also sent back to the high court a direct appeal filed in the top court by the government in a service matter.
Most litigants aggrieved by orders of the AFT used to challenge these in the high courts of their respective states. However, in 2015, the SC in the case of the Union of India versus Maj Gen Shri Kant Sharma held that in view of a specific clause of appeal to the SC provided in the AFT Act, the HCs, though empowered under the Constitution, should not hear challenges to orders of the AFT.
This left defence personnel, pensioners and their families literally remedy-less since as per the AFT Act, an appeal to the SC only lies where there is a “point of law of general public importance”. Consequent to this, the central government and the defence services started filing multiple appeals in the SC even in matters of minor benefits to defence personnel and pensioners by artificially averring “general public importance” in every such appeal.
Many litigants approached the SC, pointing out that a seven-judge constitution bench of the apex court in L Chandra Kumar versus Union of India had ruled that direct appeals to the SC made justice unaffordable and inaccessible and the right to challenge such orders must be provided to the HC, on a par with such rights provided to civilian employees and pensioners, who could challenge orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal in the HC. The matter was then referred to a larger bench.
A larger SC bench comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and B V Nagarathna also remanded back the appeals which were earlier dismissed by various HCs over lack of jurisdiction. The SC has also sent back to the high court a direct appeal filed in the top court by the government in a service matter.
Most litigants aggrieved by orders of the AFT used to challenge these in the high courts of their respective states. However, in 2015, the SC in the case of the Union of India versus Maj Gen Shri Kant Sharma held that in view of a specific clause of appeal to the SC provided in the AFT Act, the HCs, though empowered under the Constitution, should not hear challenges to orders of the AFT.
This left defence personnel, pensioners and their families literally remedy-less since as per the AFT Act, an appeal to the SC only lies where there is a “point of law of general public importance”. Consequent to this, the central government and the defence services started filing multiple appeals in the SC even in matters of minor benefits to defence personnel and pensioners by artificially averring “general public importance” in every such appeal.
Many litigants approached the SC, pointing out that a seven-judge constitution bench of the apex court in L Chandra Kumar versus Union of India had ruled that direct appeals to the SC made justice unaffordable and inaccessible and the right to challenge such orders must be provided to the HC, on a par with such rights provided to civilian employees and pensioners, who could challenge orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal in the HC. The matter was then referred to a larger bench.
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