A few days after the Chandigarh-bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal attached the staff van of principal controller of defence accounts (for harassing a disabled soldier Baldev Singh, the army headquarters moved swiftly and released his disability benefits which had been pending for two years. An AFT bench had made it clear that the property would be auctioned in case the amount was not given to the petitioner.

CHANDIGARH: A few days after the Chandigarh-bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) attached the staff van of principal controller of defence accounts (PCDA) for harassing a disabled soldier Baldev Singh, the army headquarters moved swiftly and released his disability benefits which had been pending for two years.

The AFT bench comprising justice SS Thakur and Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra (retd) had made it clear that the property would be auctioned in case the amount was not disbursed to the petitioner.

This comes in the wake of a similar order that was passed by the same bench coming to rescue of a disabled officer, Lt Col NC Mahajan.

Petitioners before the AFT have long complained about non-implementation of orders rendered in their favour. The Punjab and Haryana high court, last year in an order passed in a Public Interest Litigation titled Maj Navdeep Singh Versus Union of India, had made it clear that the AFT could invoke provisions of Order 21 of Civil Procedure Code (CPC) to get its orders implemented. Order 21 provides for both detention and attachment of property of judgement debtors. It was brought to the notice of the high court that “keeping the implementation of judicial orders in suspended animation was an affront to the majesty of law which the tribunal was duty-bound to protect and was also against the grain of judicial dignity.”

The Kerala high court, in the case Shihabudeen A versus PCDA, had also ruled that nonimplementation of orders of the AFT amounted to criminal contempt and that the AFT could initiate criminal contempt proceedings in such matters.

Many organisations including the All India Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association through its chairperson Bhim Sen Sehgal, had repeatedly complained to the defence ministry recently regarding the contemptuous behaviour of the ministry of defence for not showing regard to orders of the AFT and for not implementing the same.

Since justice Thakur’s bench has been issuing attachment orders, the AFT orders are now being implemented at a much faster pace.