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Maj. Amod Kumar v. Union of India

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2018 INSC 795Decided 6 Sept 2018
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 918 of 2017
Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman · Justice Indu Malhotra

Background

Three Army Service Corps (ASC) personnel, a Major, a Lieutenant Colonel, and a Sepoy, were posted to operational units/areas (including Rashtriya Rifles formations) and challenged these posting orders directly before the Supreme Court under Article 32. They argued that since an earlier Supreme Court decision (Lt. Col. P.K. Choudhary's case) had classified the ASC as a "non-operational" stream for promotion purposes, the same classification should mean they could not be posted to operational duty.

Decision Breakdown

The Court dismissed all three writ petitions. It held that the earlier "non-operational" classification was made only in the narrow context of distributing promotional vacancies for the rank of Colonel, and did not concern, and could not be extended to, decisions about where personnel are posted or deployed. The Court noted that transfers and postings are a necessary incident of service, that the petitioners had not shown any violation of statutory rules or mala fide conduct, and that the oath taken by armed forces personnel obliges them to serve wherever ordered. It also observed that Article 32 was not the right route since an alternate remedy existed before the Armed Forces Tribunal.

Lesson Learnt

A legal finding made by a court in one specific context (such as promotion-related classification) cannot automatically be stretched to control an unrelated decision (such as posting/deployment); and courts give very limited scope to challenge internal transfer/posting decisions of the armed forces absent a clear statutory violation or mala fide.

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

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