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Arshnoor Kaur v. Union of India

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2025 INSC 954Decided 11 Aug 2025
Writ Petition (C) No.772 of 2023
Justice Dipankar Datta · Justice Manmohan

Background

Arshnoor Kaur and another woman candidate, who ranked 5th and 4th respectively in the women's merit list for the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Branch's 31st Short Service Commission course, were denied admission even though they scored more marks than a male candidate ranked 3rd in the men's list who was selected. This happened because the Army's 2023 recruitment notification kept separate merit lists for men and women and reserved only 3 vacancies for women against 6 for men, even though the selection tests (SSB interviews, psychological tests, group tasks) were identical for both sexes. The petitioners challenged this separate-list, unequal-vacancy scheme as unconstitutional and asked for a single combined merit list based purely on marks, regardless of gender.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that once the Army itself had, by notification under Section 12 of the Army Act, 1950, opened the JAG branch to women, it could not then use an internal policy to cap their numbers or effectively reserve extra seats for men, since the testing criteria (15 "Officer Like Qualities") were common to both genders. The Court found the practice of maintaining separate gender-wise merit lists with 3 female and 6 male vacancies to be indirect discrimination and a violation of the right to equality, rejecting the Army's argument that women could be treated differently because the JAG role is non-combatant but administratively linked to combat postings. It directed that Arshnoor Kaur (447 marks) be inducted in the next available JAG training course since she scored more than the selected male candidate (433 marks), while denying relief to that male candidate since his selection itself reflected indirect discrimination against a higher-scoring woman. Going forward, the Court directed the Union of India to prepare and publish a single combined merit list for all JAG candidates irrespective of gender, with marks made public, and clarified that a genuine "gender-neutral" policy requires no less than 50% of vacancies going to women where they are more meritorious.

Lesson Learnt

When a recruitment process tests men and women on identical criteria, using separate merit lists and unequal vacancy quotas to keep more meritorious women out amounts to unconstitutional indirect discrimination; equality demands a single, transparent, merit-based selection list.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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