Question : ARMED FORCES TRIBUNAL

(a) the number of details of the Armed Forces Tribunals (AFTs) established in various parts of the country;

(b) whether both Servicemen and Ex-servicemen are experiencing difficulties in accessing these tribunals as they are regionally constituted as compared to the Central Administrative Tribunals and the various High Courts which are located in the State Capitals and if so, the details thereof;

(c) the number of cases disposed off by the AFTs since their inception, Tribunal-wise;

(d) whether the constitution of these tribunals has brought down the number of Officers and Jawans who are accessing the High Courts through their writ jurisdictions to adjudicate their grievances and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) whether his Ministry is satisfied with the functioning of the tribunals and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF DEFENCE (SHRI A.K. ANTONY)

(a) to (e): A statement is attached.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2937 FOR ANSWER ON 14.3.2011

Armed Forces Tribunal has been established with its Principal Bench at Delhi and Regional Benches at seven locations, namely, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Guwahati, Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi. It has also been decided to set up another Bench at Mumbai. The provision for Circuit Benches in the scheme of AFT is expected to take care of any problems relating to accessibility of the Tribunals to the Servicemen and Ex-servicemen.

The number of cases disposed of by various benches of the Tribunal, Bench-wise are as under:

Bench	Location	No. of Cases disposed	since inception
Principal Bench	Delhi	1525
Regional Bench	Chennai	401
Regional Bench	Jaipur	397
Regional Bench	Lucknow	945
Regional Bench	Chandigarh	1897
Regional Bench	Kolkata	124
Regional Bench	Kochi	276
Regional Bench	Guwahati	044