Supreme Court refuses to interfere with order transferring Justice DC Chaudhary from AFT Chandigarh Bench

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 13

The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the transfer of Justice DC Chaudhary from the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) Regional Bench, Chandigarh to Kolkata, saying there was no reason to doubt the “administrative discretion” of the tribunal’s chairperson who had a “stellar reputation” as a judge.

A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, however, asked the Centre to respond to another prayer by AFT Bar Association, Chandigarh against making the Union Ministry of law and Justice the parent ministry for the tribunal instead of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

After perusing a report of AFT chairperson Justice Rajendra Menon, the Bench said he had a stellar reputation as a high court judge and the chief justice of the Delhi High Court.

It disagreed with the contention of AFT Bar Association, Chandigarh that the Ministry of Defence was interfering with the functioning of the tribunal, harming its independence.

Attorney General R Venkataramani, referred to the alleged “racket on disability pension” running at AFT Chandigarh, and said a “can of worms” will be opened if he spoke more on that.

“In every case, Rs 30 to 40 Rs lakh arrears are being ordered to be paid...Such orders are becoming orders of the day,” the Attorney General said, adding around 8,000 pension cases were pending in Punjab and several of them had been converted into petitions seeking execution of orders.

“A racket on disability pension is going on,” he alleged and said he was pursuing the matter for a month. The counsel for the bar body took exception to the AG’s allegations and said now the cat was out of the bag, it was clear that Justice Chaudhary’s transfer took place at the behest of the government.

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