A bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice Kurian Joseph "partly allowed" the appeals of the Ministry of Defence against the March 2015 order of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) which had quashed the Centre's 2009 'command exit promotion' policy on the ground that it violated Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
The AFT had quashed the policy on grounds including that the officers of Infantry and Artilery were getting undue favour in promotions over officers of 'Combat Support' corps such as Engineering and Medical.
The bench, in its verdict, however, agreed with the contention that the officers of arms support corps have been "unfairly" denied their dues in promotions.
"Having given our anxious consideration to the submissions made at the bar, we are of the view that the additional 141 vacancies which ought to have been allocated to Arms Support in the year 2009 were unfairly denied to them.
In other words, the additional 141 posts shall, for all intents and purposes, be deemed to have been available for being "filled-up as in the year 2009 but to be actually filled-up in 5 years between 2009-2014," it said.