Name of the Case: ARSHNOOR KAUR & ANR. VERSUS THE UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
Citation: 2025 INSC 954
Hon’ble Bench: JUSTICE DIPANKAR DATTA AND JUSTICE MANMOHAN
Date: 11.08.2025
The Hon’ble Court ruled that in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of the Indian Army, male and female officers belong to a single cadre, performing identical roles with the same conditions of service and evaluated through the same selection criteria. Therefore, creating separate vacancies for men and women , particularly when the number of male vacancies exceeded those for females , under the guise of “extent of induction” was held to be a form of indirect discrimination and contrary to the constitutional guarantee of equality.
While recognising the need to “correct the past” and compensate for the historical non-enrolment of women, the Hon’ble Court directed that not less than 50% of vacancies should be allocated to women. However, it made it clear that this 50% figure should not operate as an upper cap , if women candidates are more meritorious, they must be selected over less-qualified male candidates.
Accordingly, the Hon’ble Court ordered the induction of the petitioner, a female candidate who had scored higher marks than a male candidate selected under the previous policy, and directed the Union of India to adopt this merit-based, common-list approach for all future JAG branch recruitments1.
- https://www.sci.gov.in/view-pdf/?diary_no=295052023&type=j&order_date=2025-08-11&from=latest_judgements_order ↩︎
