Supreme Court Dismisses Plea To Appoint Advocates To Vacant Judicial Member Posts In Armed Forces Tribunals

The Supreme Court on January 2, rejected a plea for the appointment of experienced advocates to fill the vacant judicial member positions in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT).

The petition filed under Article 32 prayed for the appointment of experienced advocates with at least 10 years of practice as judicial members for all the empty positions throughout the Armed Forces Tribunals.

The bench comprising the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was informed that out of 17 benches in Pan-India, there were only 4 working benches in 2021 which handled 19000 pending cases for the AFT, in light of which the present petition is filed.

To which the CJI verbally observed, “But your relief is wrong. You can't say that just appoint advocates to fill up all the empty positions, that can't be done there is a selection process which has to be followed”. The CJI additionally remarked that one can apply when the selection process starts.

Case Details: ISHAN GILL vs. UNION OF INDIA W.P.(C) No. 001249 - / 2023