In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld a challenge by women Short Service Commissioned officers in the Indian Army against the evaluation criteria used to grant Permanent Commission after the landmark Babita Puniya judgment. The Court held that while the stated criteria appeared gender-neutral, they had a disproportionate discriminatory impact on women. The benchmarking of women officers against the lowest-ranked male officer, reliance on ACRs written before women were eligible for promotion, and retrospective application of strict medical fitness standards decades after a 2010 High Court judgment all constituted systemic and indirect discrimination. The Court directed that all women meeting the 60% cut-off be granted Permanent Commission, applying medical standards from their 5th or 10th year of service rather than retroactively, and extended benefits to women commissioned after 2006. This decision reaffirmed substantive equality over formal equality in addressing entrenched structural discrimination.
The lawyer headnote and full judgment text are available to registered users.