Armed Forces Tribunal disposes of 366 cases in two days

The Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has disposed of 366 cases, mostly pertaining to disability benefits of soldiers, in two marathon sessions on November 26-27.

Since there is no administrative member posted to the Chandigarh Bench currently, AFT Chairperson and former Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court, Justice Virender Singh, invoked a special provision of the AFT Act, which empowers the Chairperson to sit in the capacity of an administrative member, and sat on the bench with Justice Mohammad Tahir to adjudicate the pending cases.

Paying special attention to the cases of disability pensions, the Bench directed the government to release disability benefits to disabled veterans whose claims had been rejected by the authorities.

Many of the affected soldiers were senior citizens and veterans of various wars and military operations.

Some differently-abled litigants before the tribunal who got relief in the last two days and who were discharged with a disability had remained without any kind of pension or disability pension for decades together, a lawyer at the AFT said Tuesday.