NEW DELHI: Thirty-nine women Army officers have got Permanent Commission after winning a legal battle in the Supreme Court, which ordered the government to ensure their new service status is granted within seven working days.
The Centre informed the Supreme Court that after re-examining the case of each 72 women Staff Selection Commission officers, one officer has decided to quit, 39 officers can be considered for Permanent comission, seven have been found medically unfit and 25 officers cannot be granted PC as they have adverse ACR report of indiscipline and disobedience and poor operational report.
It then directed the Centre to give a detailed report explaining the reasons why the 25 were not eligible for Permanent Commission.
A Permanent Commission means a career in the army till retirement, while Short Service Commission is for 10 years, with the option of either leaving or opting for Permanent Commission at the end of 10 years.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna said that in respect of the officers forming part of the group of 36 WSSCOs who have filed four contempt petitions in the top court and are not found eligible for grant of PC, the Centre shall file statements in a tabulated form giving the reasons for each of the officers not found eligible or are denied PC.
“In the above facts, we are of the view that ends of justice would be met, if to begin with, orders for the grant of PC are issued for all the 39 officers, in terms of the statement which have been made before this court by the ASG Sanjay Jain within a period of one seven working days from today. Compliance shall be scrupulously ensured within seven working days”, it said. WSSCO
“The ASG has submitted that in respect of these (25) officers, they are not found to be eligible on disciplinary grounds and in certain cases on other issues such as integrity, or disobedience of lawful orders and weak operational reports. Moreover, it has been submitted that male counterparts of these officers have been denied PC on similar grounds”, the bench noted.
In its 25 March verdict, SC had directed the army to consider granting Permanent Commission to the Women Short Service Commission Officers(WSSCO) subject to their obtaining 60 percent marks in the assessment subjects, being found fit on medical criteria as per the 1 August 2020 order of the Indian Army and having received disciplinary and vigilance clearances.
On October 1, SC had restrained the Army from discharging the 72 WSSCOs, who were not considered for PC, till further orders and had sought a reply within a week on why they were not considered for the service.
On October 8, Supreme Court had given one last opportunity to the Centre to resolve the issue of grant of PC to 72 WSSCOs in the Army and said it should be concerning its order of March 25 this year, and thereafter it will close the contempt case filed by the women officers.
The move will pave will pave the way for empowering women officers to shoulder larger roles in the organisation.
The top court said that after the exercise of the grant of PC is completed, it would be necessary for the Centre to apprise the court of the ground which has resulted in the denial of PC to the remaining officers in the contempt proceedings.
On February 17 last year, in a landmark verdict, the top court had directed that women officers in the Army be granted a permanent commission, rejecting the Centre’s stand of their physiological limitations as being based on “sex stereotypes” and “gender discrimination against women”.
The apex court had directed that within three months, all serving SSC women officers have to be considered for PCs irrespective of them having crossed 14 years or, as the case may be, 20 years of service.