An NRI professional has won a landmark High Court appeal in London after a six-year legal battle seeking workplace fairness for women living with chronic illness. Reported by NDTV.
Sanju Pal, a non-resident Indian from West Bengal who suffers from endometriosis, secured the ruling on Monday in a case that is expected to influence how disability discrimination linked to the condition is addressed under the UK’s Equality Act 2010.
The 41-year-old, represented by law firm Kilgannon & Partners, also challenged a controversial progression-based “up or out” employment model that allows consultants to be dismissed if they are not deemed ready for promotion. She argued that the system was unfair and inconsistent with the UK’s Employment Rights Act 1996.
“Ms Sanju Pal succeeds in appeal against (global management consulting firm) Accenture at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT),” her lawyers said in a statement following the judgment.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that the original tribunal’s reasoning on disability discrimination related to endometriosis was “wholly inadequate” and therefore could not stand.
“Her evidence that she was affected by endometriosis was supported by the medical evidence,” the EAT judgment reads.
“The Employment Tribunal also failed to consider whether the condition would continue to have substantial adverse effect on the claimant's ability to undertake normal day-to-day activities absent medical treatment. The issue of disability will have to be considered entirely afresh,” it states.
Endometriosis, which causes chronic pelvic pain, is estimated to affect around 1.5 million women in the UK. The EAT concluded that earlier findings that Pal was not disabled, and that she had not suffered discrimination arising from disability, were unsustainable.
Having succeeded on all grounds of appeal, the case will now be referred back to a newly constituted tribunal to reassess the issue of disability independently. Pal’s legal dispute dates back to 2019, when she was dismissed from her managerial role at Accenture (UK) Ltd after failing to secure promotion to senior manager level.
While an Employment Tribunal upheld her unfair dismissal claim in May 2022, she was awarded only £4,275 as a basic compensation amount.
The appeal court has also ordered a fresh review of compensation, including whether the company would have reached a different outcome had it followed its own policies on independent investigations and decision-making.
The “up or out” model under scrutiny allows dismissal if an employee is not promoted within a defined period. Addressing this issue, Kilgannon & Partners said:
“Upholding this ground of appeal, the EAT confirmed that an employee can only be dismissed for capability relating to ‘the work of the kind which he was employed by the employer to do’ and that this is to be assessed on the basis of the work required under the contract of employment.
This meant that Ms Pal's dismissal under the progression-based model may not be a potentially fair reason under the heading of ‘capability’.”
The High Court appeal panel, led by Judge James Tayler, also observed that the tribunal which heard Pal’s case in 2022 had formed an “extremely adverse view” of her.
Pal had funded her appeal through an online CrowdJustice campaign, with the hearing taking place on December 9, 2025. She has previously received the UK Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award for founding Rural India Social Enterprise (RISE), an education charity supporting communities in the UK and rural India.
Reflecting on the outcome, Pal said:
“It has been such an uphill battle to get to this point and I cannot believe that it's all over. I have kept going so that unlawful practices in the workplace stop and so that employees with chronic health conditions are better supported and have their rights protected.”
Accenture (UK) Ltd said it is “unable to comment about an ongoing legal matter”.
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