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Civil · Reportable judgment

Nitisha and Others vs Union of India and Others

Court
Supreme Court of India
Date
3 November 2023
Case No.
Miscellaneous Application No. 1913 of 2022
Result
Disposed
Bench
D.Y. Chandrachud, J.B. Pardiwala, Manoj Misra
Citation
[2023] 15 S.C.R. 513 : 2023 INSC 985
Supreme Court Reports [2023] 15 S.C.R. 513 : 2023 INSC 985
Issue for consideration
The issue pertains to the women officers of the Indian Army, who were granted Permanent Commission in pursuance of the judgment of this Court in *Lieutenant Colonel Nitisha and Others vs Union of India and Others, are aggreived by the non-empanelment for promotion to the rank of Colonel by selection.
Headnote

Armed forces – Women officers – Promotion to the rank of Colonel by selection – Women officers granted Permanent Commission-PC pursuant to *Lieutenant Colonel Nitisha v Union of India’s case, aggreived by the non-empanelment for promotion to the rank of Colonel by selection – Plea that all the Confidential Reports-CRs of women officers commencing from the 1992 batch onwards until 2005 not duly considered and the more recent CRs excluded from consideration: Held: Manner in which the cut off was applied for reckoning CRs of the women officers for empanelment as Colonels is arbitrary, since the CRs for several years were kept out of reckoning altogether – Attitude was to find some way to defeat the just entitlement of the women officers – Such an approach does disservice to the need to provide justice to the women officers – Manner in which the applicants have been denied empanelment for the post of Colonel on a selection basis is arbitrary and violative of the fundamental principles of fairness – Whole approach is contrary to both the judgment of this Court in *Nitisha case as well as the policy framework laid down by the Army authorities – Thus, issuance of direction to reconvene Special No 3 SB afresh within the stipulated period for all the women officers who were considered by the earlier Special No 3 SB (except for those officers already been empaneled) – Constitution of India – Art 14.[Paras 21-23] LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES

*Lieutenant Colonel Nitisha and Others vs Union of India and Others (2021) 15 SCC 125 – referred to.

OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED

ORDER AND APPEARANCES

As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.

Full Judgment Text

JUDGMENT / ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, CJI 1. The issue which has been raised in a clutch of applications pertains to the implementation of the decision of this Court in Lieutenant Colonel Nitisha and Others vs Union of India and Others1. 2. The grievance before this Court is by women officers of the Indian Army, who have been granted Permanent Commission2 in pursuance of the judgment of this Court. The issue in dispute relates to their non-empanelment for promotion to the rank of Colonel by selection. 3. Before analyzing the factual grievance, it wou
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