ARMED FORCES TRIBUNAL   

The Tribunal shall exercise all the jurisdiction, powers and authority exercisable under this Act in relation to appeal against any order, decision, finding or sentence passed by a court martial or any matter connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Any person aggrieved by an order, decision, finding or sentence passed by a court martial may prefer an appeal in such form, manner and within such time as may be prescribed.

The Tribunal shall have power to grant bail to any person accused of an offence and in military custody, with or without any conditions which it considers necessary:

The Tribunal shall allow an appeal against conviction by a court martial where the finding of the court martial is legally not sustainable due to any reason whatsoever; or the finding involves wrong decision on a question of law; or there was a material irregularity in the course of the trial resulting in miscarriage of justice, but, in any other case, may dismiss the appeal where the Tribunal considers that no miscarriage of justice is likely to be caused or has actually resulted to the appellant. The Tribunal may allow an appeal against conviction, and pass appropriate order thereon.

The Tribunal may have the powers to substitute for the findings of the court martial, a finding of guilty for any other offence for which the offender could have been lawfully found guilty by the court martial and pass a sentence afresh for the offence specified or involved in such findings or if sentence is found to be excessive, illegal or unjust, the Tribunal may (i) remit the whole or any part of the sentence, with or without conditions; (ii) mitigate the punishment awarded (iii) commute such punishment to any lesser punishment or enhance the sentence awarded by a court martial:

The Tribunal may release the appellant, if sentenced to imprisonment, on parole with or without conditions; suspend a sentence of imprisonment; Or pass any other order as it may think appropriate.

Notwithstanding any other provisions in this Act, for the purposes of jurisdiction and powers, the Tribunal shall be deemed to be a criminal court for the purposes of relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Chapter XXVI of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Territorial Jurisdiction

The Territorial jurisdiction of the Regional Benches shall flow from the administrative orders issued by the Government of India from time to time. At present the States and Bench-wise territorial jurisdiction is as under :-

 

Sl. No. Bench States
1. Principal Bench New Delhi
2. Chandigarh Bench Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and U.T of Chandigarh
3. Lucknow Bench U.P., U.K.
4. Kolkata Bench West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and U.T. of Andman and Nicobar Islands
5. Guwahati Bench N.E. Region
6. Mumbai Bench Maharashtra and Gujarat
7. Kochi Bench Kerala, Karnataka and Lakshdweep
8. Chennai Bench Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and U.T. of Pondicherry
9. Jaipur Bench Rajasthan
10. Jabalpur Bench M.P. and Chhattisgarh
11. Jammu Bench J&K