New Jammu bench for Armed Forces Tribunal

A new bench of India's Armed Forces Tribunal has been established in Jammu, according to this report in The Daily Excelsior. Excerpt:

Armed Forces Tribunal has regional branches at Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai and Jaipur. There was no branch of armed forces in [Jammu & Kashmir]. This means that any soldier belonging to J&K or his family member, if they wanted justice against some unjust done to them had to travel all the way to the nearest branch and make presentation before the court of law. The policy of the government has been to provide the Armed Forces Tribunal to take care of the cases of service personnel so that justice is done to them quickly. 

Good news for the armed forces personnel in J&K is that the Government has established full-fledged branch of AFT for the State. It is located in the Military Station at Sunjuwan. The full fledged branch has begun its work from 17th November. A formal function was organized for the opening of the J&K branch originally meant to be set up in Srinagar but temporarily located in Sunjuwan, Jammu. The Chief Justice of J&K High Court along with a large galaxy of judicial and military officers was present at the function. Addressing the gathering, Chief Justice said that about 425 cases have been pending with the High Court and these would be transferred to the AFT for early disposal.