Woman lieutenant colonel not reinstated despite order, Armed Forces Tribunal summons defence secretary

However, the ministry failed to implement the tribunal’s order. The matter came up for hearing before the bench of the tribunal chairperson, Justice Rajendra Menon, and Lt Gen CP Mohanty (retd), who issued the order for the defence secretary to appear before it pending any legal action.

The bench on Thursday noted that there were more than 1,800 cases pending before the tribunal wherein its orders were not being implemented for months and years.

“This case indicates the pathetic, lacklustre manner in which the respondents are dealing with implementation of orders passed by this Tribunal,” the bench said.

When the tribunal’s order was not implemented within the timeframe given, Lt Col Nandita Satpathy filed an execution application after four months, on August 25, 2023.

“When the matter came up on September 6, 2023 we were informed that an SLP has been filed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court on September 1, 2023 and this Court observed that merely filing of an SLP shall not render the execution proceedings null and until and unless appropriate orders are not issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court including stay of the order passed by this Tribunal,

the respondents are required to comply with the order of this Tribunal within the time prescribed. In spite thereof, we granted time to the respondents to comply with the order. Ultimately, when the matter was taken up on September 29, 2023 we were informed that the matter has come up before the Hon’ble Supreme Court and on September 22, 2023, SLP filed by the Union of India has been dismissed,” the bench noted.

The bench observed that the matter had been kept dragging on one pretext or the other. It added that the affidavits filed by the ministry indicated that it had been somehow trying to ensure the tribunal’s order was not implemented.

“We are constrained to note that there are more than 1,800 cases pending before the Tribunal wherein orders passed by this Tribunal are not being implemented for months and years together. We have also been informed by Learned Counsel on behalf of Respondents on numerous occasion that written orders to the effects have been issued by the MoD to the Services to file LTAs/RAs/MA on frivolous grounds even in identical cases which are well settled by the verdicts of Hon’ble Supreme Court and also in similar cases which have already been implemented by the competent authority themselves,” the bench said.

Larger bench to deal with contempt of court

Flagging the “scant regard to the orders of the court”, the bench stated that it was nothing short of blatant contempt of court, for which the tribunal had already constituted a larger bench to take action against the defaulters within the powers available under sections 19, 25 and 29 of the Armed Forces Tribunal Act.

“That apart, we have already referred 23 cases to Hon’ble Delhi High Court to initiate civil contempt actions which have the propensity to snowball into severe embarrassment for the Ministry and the defence services as there is no scope under law to dismiss the order of the Hon’ble Court by departmental actions without challenging the same in a higher court,” the bench observed.

‘Matters cannot be kept pending’

In the absence of any provision for taking action for contempt, the bench said the tribunal was handicapped in dealing with issues pertaining to execution.

“This case is an example of the manner in which the respondents are implementing the directions of this court. The respondents may have grievance with regard to an order passed by this Tribunal that gives a right to the respondents to either challenge the order before the Hon’ble High Court or go to the Hon’ble Supreme Court and obtain appropriate stay order. But in the garb of filing writ petitions and SLP, the matters cannot be kept pending for a long period of time. Instances have come to our notice where execution applications have been filed and after one year, writ petitions and SLPs have been filed by the respondents in the Supreme Court. This court is handicapped in dealing with more than 1,800 execution petitions in ten Benches of this Tribunal,” it said.

“Before initiating the contemplated legal action against the Ministry as a last resort, we consider it prudent to direct the personal appearance of Secretary, Ministry of Defence, before this Tribunal. In this case no appearance of any subordinate officer on behalf of the Defence Secretary shall be permitted at any cost. The Defence Secretary is thus directed to accordingly appear on 08.05.2024 at 02:30 PM in the Conference Room of Armed Forces Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi” the bench said.