The Armed Forces Tribunal Bar Association here has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Law after the Ministry of Defence has filed a large number of appeals against the orders of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) Benches granting relief to defence personnel in matters related to disability benefits.
In a communique addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal today, the association has endorsed a letter written to the Prime Minister by the bar association of the Jaipur Bench and expressed its concern on the issue.
“Our association notes with serious concern the recent humongous amount of litigation let loose upon disabled soldiers, widows of defence personnel and their families by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare of the Ministry of Defence only because of the reason that many of its senior officers were pulled up by various Benches of the Armed Forces Tribunal for non-implementation of its orders for the past many years,” the letter states.
“It needs no emphasis that all these Armed Forces Tribunal orders are based upon the existing Supreme Court judgements and the Law Ministry had also directed the withdrawal of all similar appeals from the Supreme Court, which was announced with much fanfare by the Defence Ministry in 2019. It is also a policy of the current government to reduce such litigation to the minimum,” the letter further says
The Bar has pointed out that soldiers suffer from many types of medical conditions due to the stress and strain of military service, which affects their health and longevity and such a move is bound to further cause miseries to them.
“A nation is known by the way it treats its ex-servicemen and such a move is not only quite disastrous as far as public image is concerned, but will also hit public resources and government manpower, besides clogging the courts with thousands of cases,” it adds.
Urging the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the Minister of Law to intervene in the interest of the nation, the Bar has also requested them to sensitise the officers concerned on the issue of welfare of disabled soldiers.
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