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Nakhat Singh v. Union of India and Others

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 758Decided 29 Jul 2026
C.A. No.-009050-009050 - 2026
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan · Justice Atul S. Chandurkar

Background

Nakhat Singh, an Airman (Corporal) in the Indian Air Force, applied for the post of Assistant Professor of Hindi through the Rajasthan Public Service Commission in 2020 without first seeking the permission required under Air Force Order No. 33/2017 before applying for a civil post. After he was selected, he sought a No Objection Certificate (NOC) and discharge to join the new post, but the Air Officer Commanding declined to recommend his application because he had never obtained the mandatory prior permission. The Armed Forces Tribunal and, on further challenge, the Delhi High Court both upheld the denial of the NOC, finding no evidence that he had submitted any application (online or offline) for prior permission as required. He appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the requirement under AFO No. 33/2017 to seek prior permission before applying for a civil post is not a mere procedural formality but a mandatory pre-requisite, since the Order itself specifies rejection of the NOC as the consequence of non-compliance, and where a provision spells out consequences for non-fulfilment, compliance is treated as mandatory. The Court reasoned that this requirement serves the legitimate purpose of regulating premature discharge of trained personnel from the Air Force, a disciplined force, and that an Airman cannot bypass this requirement and then present his selection as a fait accompli to force the grant of an NOC. Relying on its own earlier decision in Amit Kumar Roy v. Union of India, the Court reaffirmed that a member of the armed forces does not have an unqualified right under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution to leave service at will, since the interests of operational preparedness must be balanced against individual career aspirations. The appeal was dismissed, with the Court declining to interfere with the concurrent findings of the AFT and the High Court.

Lesson Learnt

Members of the armed forces (and by extension, anyone bound by service-specific regulatory procedures) cannot skip a mandatory prior-permission requirement and then expect a later favourable outcome, such as a job selection, to override or excuse that non-compliance: procedural pre-requisites tied to defined consequences are legally binding, not optional formalities.

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

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