New Delhi: Right to Information responses sent by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) to RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak reveal that the total number of cases pending before all its 11 benches is nearly 38,000 – way higher than the 6,904 pending cases the Union government declared in parliament on December 5, 2025.The AFT adjudicates disputes related to service matters, pensions, disability claims and court-martial appeals. Therefore, the high number of cases pending with it means that as many soldiers have been waiting for their pension and other disputes to be resolved – sometimes for years.Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s (CHRI) director and RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak found in responses to his queries to the AFT that if total pending cases across all benches and over two decades were added up, the number reaches 37,864. This figure is not just substantially higher than what the Union government declared but also higher than the AFT’s own declaration just a few months earlier, in another set of RTI responses to Nayak.The mismatch between the figures of the Union government and the AFT came to light in December 2025, when the tribunal’s Central Public Information Officer, in RTI responses to Nayak, said the pendency was 27,962 cases as of September, 2025. The Wire had first reported the inconsistencies in AFT’s pendency figures, including the mismatch with the figures provided in the government’s reply in parliament. In fact, the report showed that parliament had recorded 18,826 pending cases in February 2021 and that this figure steadily rose after this date.It remains unclear how the Union government arrived at the figure of 6,904 pending cases at the AFT in December, 2025.The parliament replies presented only year-wise snapshots of the pendency at AFT, and not cumulative totals. Those were worked out by RTI activist Nayak on his own, based on the RTI responses AFT sent him.Now, in the latest series of responses to Nayak’s RTI questions, AFT has provided a category-wise break up of pending cases: cases pending for more than 15 years, between 10-15 years, 9 to 5 years and under 5 years across its 11 benches.The data shows that 1,099 cases (2.90%) have been pending for ‘more than 15 years’ i.e., ever since the AFT was established. Almost a quarter of the 37,864 cases, i.e., 9,302 cases (24.57%) have been pending for ‘between 10-15 years’. And 4,944 cases (13.06%) have been pending for ‘between five to nine years’. The remaining 22,519 cases (58.52%) are pending for ‘less than five years’.The RTI also reveals that three-fourths (78.76%) of the pending cases are lying with the Delhi Principal Bench and the regional benches in Chandigarh and Lucknow. AFT also said that 1,204 cases were transferred from the High Court of Delhi to the AFT Principal Bench in Delhi soon after it was set up in August, 2009.Speaking with The Wire, Nayak said, “There are other discrepancies too. For instance, [the latest] RTI replies show that 1,000 cases are pending before the Principal Bench for more than 15 years. However, according to the data supplied by the CPIO to me in September 2025, only 992 cases had been admitted in 2009. Both the AFT and the Union government must explain this data discrepancy.”In other words, if fewer than 1,000 cases were admitted initially, how can more than that be pending for over 15 years? Such inconsistencies in AFT’s own figures and a mismatch with those of the Union government raises the question of which data is correct, and which of these should be taken as a metric to measure the AFT’s performance in resolving disputes.The high number of pending cases at the AFT could be an outcome of a similarly huge number of vacancies at the tribunal. According to data tabled in Rajya Sabha in December 2025, almost one third, i.e., 11 of the sanctioned 34 posts of Chairpersons, Vice-Chairpersons and Members across the AFT’s 11 benches were vacant.In March 2021, responding to a question asked by Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore (Retd.) a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament from Rajasthan, the minister of state of defence had shown 18,829 pending cases and 23 vacancies in the AFT’s 34 posts and 11 benches. In December 2025, however, the Union government informed Rajya Sabha that there were only 11 vacancies across various benches of the AFT.In December 2025, two members of parliament, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Arun Nehru and Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’ Brien sought information on case pendency in all administrative tribunals established by central laws, including the AFT.Prior to this, Nayak had, in August 2025, already asked the AFT about pending cases through his RTI applications.Responding to the parliamentary questions, the Union government declared 6,904 pending cases at the AFT from 2020 to 2025. This figure is substantially lower than what the AFT informed Nayak in its RTI replies in September 2025.Now, a third set of data (second from the AFT) shows an even higher discrepancy.The AFT was established in August, 2009 with a Principal Bench in Delhi and 10 other benches operating out of Chandigarh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Guwahati, Kochi, Jabalpur and Jammu. The Principal Bench and the Regional Benches in Chandigarh and Lucknow have three judicial and three administrative members each. Other regional benches have one judicial member and one administrative member each. The Chairperson is always a judicial member.