Supreme Court of India

The Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya & Ors.

Neutral citation

Reported as [2020] 3 S.C.R. 833

Bench Dr. Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi JJ.

Decided 17 February 2020

INSC stands for INDIAN SUPREME COURT. A neutral citation scheme assigned by the Court itself, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter. INSC is the neutral citation scheme assigned by the Supreme Court, so a judgment can be cited without depending on a commercial law reporter.

11 Supreme Court benches have cited this judgment.

What the Court ordered

We are of the opinion that the submissions which have been made by the Union of India betray a lack of understanding of the plain consequences of the decision.

Judgment, page 39

From the headnote

Constitution of India: Arts. 14, 15 (1) and 16(1) – Induction of women in Army under Women Special Entry Scheme (Officers) [WSES] for a pe riod of 5 years – The initial process under WSES replaced by Sho rt Service Commission (SSC) with outer period of fourteen years – Wr it petition seeking direction for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) to women SSC officers – High Court held that SSC women officers who had opted for PC and were not granted PC but granted ex tension of SSC, were entitled to PC at par with male SSC officers – Appe al to Supreme Court – During pendency of the appeal Union

Authorities it was built on

1983 R. Viswan & Others v. Union of India & Others cited by 7
2016 Union of India and Anr. v. Lt. Col. P.K. Choudhary and Ors. cited by 6
1982 Lt. Col. Prithi Pal Singh Bedi Etc. v. Union of India & Others cited by 5
1963 Ram Sarup v. Union of Lndia and Another cited by 1

Where later benches applied it

2022 Wg Cdr A U Tayyaba (retd) and Others v. Union of India and Others relied on
2026 Syed Mohammed Ghouse Pasha Khadri v. Syed Mohammed Adil Pasha Khadri. referred to
2025 Arshnoor Kaur & Anr. v. The Union of India & Ors. referred to
2025 Sarita Choudhary v. High Court of Madhya Pradesh & Another referred to
2024 Property Owners Association & Ors. v. State of Maharashtra & Ors. referred to
2024 Omkar Ramchandra Gond v. The Union of India & Ors. referred to
2024 Sukanya Shantha v. Union of India & Ors. referred to
2023 Association of Old Settlers of Sikkim and Ors. v. Union of India and Anr. referred to
2022 Janhit Abhiyan v. Union of India mentioned
2021 Lt. Col. Nitisha & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. mentioned
2020 Union of India & Ors. v. Lt. Cdr. Annie Nagaraja & Ors. mentioned

Of those, 1 relied on · 7 referred to · 3 mentioned

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