AFT: Ramkumar frontrunner

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Retired Kerala High court judge Justice V. Ramkumar has emerged as the frontrunner for the post of the judicial member at the Koc-hi bench of the Armed For-ce Tribunal with the state cabinet sub-committee sen-ding a proposal to the Pre-sident for final approval.

Justice Ramkumar who retired last month had put in an application and the Chief Justice of India had sent it for intelligence clearance.

According to so-urces, the Intelligence dep-artment conducted a verification and a report was sent to the state cabinet.

However, the wait for the new judicial member may prolong, as President Prathibha Patil will be retiring soon.

The bench with jurisdiction over Kerala, Karn-ataka and Lakshadweep, had not been considering cases since the retirement of Justice K. Padmanbhan Nair on May 19, 2011. A total of 700 cases are pending disposal before the bench.

The Kerala High Court had recently asked the central government to take urgent steps to appoint a new judicial member. Several petitions were also filed before the HC seeking appointment of the judicial member.

Former Andhra Pradesh HC Judge Justice C.V. Ra-mulu had refused to take up the post. As per the Armed Force Act, a bench comprising two members should consider the cases. The Kochi bench was set up in December 2009.

AFT considers cases regarding the appointment, seniority, promotion and other matters relating to army personnel.