In Brief
Officers of the Indian Army challenged the government's policy to lower the age profile of Combat and Combat Support arms by creating 1,484 additional vacancies, allocated via 'Command Exit Model', arguing it unfairly excluded Services streams (ASC, AOC, EME). The Supreme Court held that the AV Singh Committee's recommendations applied only to operational formations (Combat and Combat Support arms), not Services. Although the first tranche of 750 vacancies was wrongly allocated pro-rata across all streams, this did not overturn the policy. The second tranche should have been allocated without offsetting the earlier error, creating a shortfall of 141 vacancies owed to Combat Support. The Court rejected claims of a single cadre structure and legitimate expectation for batch parity, finding the policy served a legitimate public interest. It partly allowed the appeals and directed creation of 141 additional posts for Combat Support officers over five years.
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