Fulfilling a long-pending demand, the Cabinet approved the creation of 31 posts of adjudicators comprising a Chairperson and 29 other members to be drawn from the judiciary and senior Armed Forces personnel.     

A staggering 9,800 cases of the Armed Forces personnel pending in civil courts would now stand transferred to the newly set up Tribunal, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.     

The tribunal would be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of the High Courts.     

While the Principal Bench of the Tribunal would be in New Delhi, the other Benches would be located in Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai, Guwahati and Jaipur.     

The tribunal has been set up on the directions of the Supreme Court, which passed an order to this effect in 1982. The Law Commission supported the apex court order.     

Besides the Chairperson, the Tribunal would have 14 judicial members and 15 administrative members.     

While the judicial members would be drawn from various High Court Benches, the administration members would be officers from the three services in the rank of Major General and above in the army or equivalent from the other two services.