LIEUTENANT COLONEL NITISHA & OTHERS (VS) UNION OF INDIA & OTHERS

The landmark case of Lt. Col. Nitisha and Ors. v. Union of India and Ors. by the Supreme Court of India transformed the discussion on the topic of gender equality and substantive justice in the Indian armed forces. The court in the case of Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya (2020) held that Women in Short Service Commission (SSC) to be granted Permanent Commission (PC). The implementation procedures however bring forward the structural barriers and systematic disadvantages against the women officers. Lt. Col. Nitisha and Others challenged the procedure used by the selection board of the armed forces, arguing that ostensibly gender-neutral standards like the medical evaluation criteria at present age and biased cut-off in the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) leads to indirect discrimination against the women officers. _x000D_ The court recognised the concept of indirect discrimination under Article 14, 15 & 16 of the constitution of India. It held that prima facie neutral policies can be unconstitutional as they proved to be disadvantageous in disproportion to a protected group. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud stressed that equality mentioned in the constitution is formal as well as substantive. The judgement put forward the requirement for a detailed guidelines in recruitment of women officers with mandatory transparency to be followed in the selection process along with time bound implementation of permanent commission with consequential benefits.