Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007: ss.14 and 15 – Allegations pertaining to irregularities in procurement of ration – Investigation – Prima facie case against 12 Army Personnel including the respondent – A hearing of the charge under r.22 against the Respondent was convened – The Commanding Officer of the Respondent i.e. General Officer Commanding (GOC), 15 Infantry Division found no prima facie case made out against the Respondent – The said view was approved by the GOC, 15 Corps – Meanwhile, Respondent retired on attaining the age of superannuation – However, appellants invoked s.123 of the Army Act, 1950 to continue the proceedings against him – The GOC-inC, Western Command disagreed with the recommendations made by the GOC, 15 Infantry Division and GOC, 15 Corps and arrived at a conclusion that a prima facie case was made out against Respondent – General Court Martial convened – Respondent filed O.A. under ss.14 and 15 assailing the validity of the order convening the General Court Martial – Tribunal held that a prima facie case to proceed against the Respondent by a General Court Martial was not made out – Aggrieved appellant filed instant appeal – Appellant contended that jurisdiction is conferred on the Tribunal only for adjudication of complaints and disputes regarding service matters and appeals arising out of the verdicts of the Court Martial and as such, an order by which the General Court Martial was convened cannot be the subject matter of an appeal before the Tribunal – Held: s.15 confers jurisdiction and power on the Tribunal to entertain appeal against any order, decision, finding or sentence passed by a Court Martial – The order challenged in the OA in this case is a proceeding by which the General Court Martial was convened – As there was no order, decision, finding or sentence by the Court Martial, an appeal under s.15 per se was not maintainable – As regards the maintainability of s.14, the said section enables a person aggrieved to make an application to the Tribunal in any service matter – ‘Service matters’ are defined in s.3(o) to mean all matters relating to the conditions of their service, which shall include termination of service – ‘Conditions of service’ mean those conditions which regulate the holding of a post by any person right from the time of his appointment till his retirement and even after his retirement including pension etc. – Therefore, conditions of service also include dismissal from service – s.14 of the Act which confers jurisdiction over service matters of the Army personnel should receive wide construction – The object with which the Act was made is to provide adjudication of complaints and disputes regarding service matters and not only appeals against the verdicts of the Court Martial – It is trite law that statement of objects and reasons can be used as a tool for interpretation – The impugned judgment of the Tribunal did not suffer from lack of jurisdiction – Regarding the charges sought to be framed against the Respondent, there was no error in the approach of the Tribunal – The material on record was perused by the Tribunal to come to a conclusion that no prima facie case is made out against the Respondent – No reason to interfere with the said findings. Dismissing the appeal, the Court
HELD: 1.1 The O.A. was filed both under Sections 14 and
15 of the Act. Section 15 confers jurisdiction and power on the Tribunal to entertain appeal against any order, decision, finding or sentence passed by a Court Martial. Section 15(2) of the Act provides for an appeal which can be filed by the person aggrieved by an order, decision, finding or sentence passed by a Court Martial. The order challenged in the OA in this case is a proceeding by which the General Court Martial was convened. As there was no order, decision, finding or sentence by the Court Martial, an appeal under Section 15 per se is not maintainable. Section 14 enables a person aggrieved to make an application to the Tribunal in any service matter. ‘Service matters’ are defined in Section 3(o) to mean all matters relating to the conditions of their service, which shall include termination of service, inter alia. Any matter relating to the conditions of service falls within the definition of ‘service matters’ under Section 3(o) of the Act and can be the subject matter of an application filed before the Tribunal. ‘Conditions of service’ mean those conditions which regulate the holding of a post by any person right from the time of his appointment till his retirement and even after his retirement including pension etc. Therefore, conditions of service also include dismissal from service. [Paras 13-16] [419-E-H; 420-A-B]
1.2 The words ‘relating to’ appearing before the words ‘conditions of service’ in the definition of ‘service matters’ in Section 3 (o) of the Act should be given a wide interpretation. Any proceeding which leads to an order of termination. would fall within the expression ‘relating to conditions of service’. In any event, the proceedings initiated against the Respondent cannot be said to be not related to his service. A final order to be passed by the General Court Martial, apart from the imposition of other penalties, might have led to the termination of the service of the Respondent. Section 14 of the Act which confers jurisdiction over service matters of the Army personnel should receive wide construction. An interpretation which confers jurisdiction should be preferred over an interpretation which takes away jurisdiction. [Paras 17, 18, 19] [420-C-E-F] State of Maharashtra v. Marwanjee Desai (2002) 2 SCC 318 ; Mansukhlal Dhanraj Jain v. Eknath Ogale (1995) 2 SCC 665 : [1995] 1 SCR 996 ; Mantri
Technozone v. Forward Foundation (2019) SCC
Online SC 322 – relied on.
S.S. Bola v. B.D. Sharma (1997) 8 SCC 522 – relied on.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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