SC: High courts can now hear appeals against AFT verdicts

Chandigarh: The apex court has fully restored the jurisdiction of high courts to hear appeals challenging the judgments of the Armed Forces Tribunals (AFT) that had been barred by a 2015 order of the Supreme Court (SC) division bench in the Union of India versus Maj Gen Shri Kant Sharma case.
Overruling its earlier decision, a larger bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice BV Nagarathna of the SC — tasked with examining the issue — held on Tuesday that HCs would have jurisdiction over judgments of the AFT. The bench noted the decision in Maj Gen Shri Kant Sharma case had “indeed diluted provisions of judicial review, which forms the basic structure of the Constitution”.
The court has also remanded back the appeals that were earlier dismissed by various HCs over lack of jurisdiction subsequent to Shri Kant Sharma’s case.