The Supreme Court has ruled that members of the Central Armed Police Force, including the BSF, can move Delhi High Court to challenge disciplinary action even if the cause of such action arose outside the national capital.

The court passed the ruling while allowing an appeal filed by Bakshish Ahmad, a dismissed BSF trooper, challenging a Delhi High Court judgment that had refused to entertain his plea against his dismissal from service. Ahmad, who was posted at the BSF headquarters in Malda, was dismissed for marrying a second time without obtaining a divorce.

Through an order dated October 27, 2022, the BSF dismissed the appellant without any pension benefits. Ahmad’s statutory appeal before the inspector-general of the BSF frontier headquarters in Jammu was also rejected in December 2023. Aggrieved, he moved Delhi High Court.

Allowing his appeal, the Supreme Court observed that Delhi High Court had “territorial jurisdiction in light of situs of office of the Union of India and the Director General, BSF/the officer in whom is vested supervision and command of the other CAPF, as per clause (1) of Article 226”.