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36.3 The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) upheld the challenge to the different ages of retirement in the same rank of Group Captain. The appeal of the Union of India against the judgment of the AFT was dismissed by the Supreme Court by the said decision in Union of India v. Atul Shukla (supra).

36.4 The Supreme Court reiterated the certain legal position that "Article 14 prohibits class legislation and not reasonable classification." It was held that from the decisions starting with State of West Bengal v. Anwar Ali Sarkar AIR 1952 SC 75 till Subramanian Swamy v. CBI (2014) 8 SCC 682 the settled legal position was that:

"a classification passes the test of Article 14 only if (i) there is an intelligible differentia between those grouped together and others who are kept out of the group; and (ii) there exists a nexus between the differentia and the object of the legislation."

36.5 Explaining the decision in Subramanian Swamy v. CBI (supra) where the Supreme Court examined whether Section 6-A (1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was constitutionally valid inasmuch as it required approval of the Central Government for conduct of an inquiry or investigation into an offence alleged to have been committed under the PC Act by employees of the Central Government of the level of Joint Secretary and above and officers appointed by the Central Government corporations established by or under the Central Act, Government Companies, Societies etc. The Court held as under: