Centre defends permanent commission policy in Army as SC reserves verdict

New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) The Centre on Thursday defended its policy on the grant of permanent commission to Short Service Commission women officers and said the apex court's verdicts on the aspect were being followed without discrimination.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh reserved its verdict on a batch of 84 officers of the Army.

The officers have challenged the denial of grant of permission commission.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre and the Army, submitted that the 2020 verdict in Babita Puniya case and 2021 verdict in Nitisha case had actually upheld the policy and whatever faults which were still there and pointed out by the court were eventually corrected.

Justice Kant told Bhati it did not mean that the Army had corrected its policy on permanent commission and whatever faults existed were removed post Nitisha verdict.

Concluding her arguments, Bhati said, “No process can satisfy everyone and there will always be heartburn.” She said elimination was also part of policy to keep the forces young and it was equally applied to all without discrimination.

Senior advocates Maneka Guruswamy, V Mohana, Abhinav Mukherjee and Rekha Palli, appearing for the SSC officers, advanced counter submissions.

The bench said it would also hear similar pleas related to permanent commission from the Navy, followed by the Air Force and coast guard.

On September 24, the Centre denied any discrimination in granting permanent commission to SSC officers when compared with their male counterparts while assuring the top court that all parameters were being duly followed.

Bhati said uniform policy is followed for all in grant of permanent commission.

Countering the arguments of the women officers, who moved court, Bhati had said the annual confidential reports of those officers were actually gender neutral without an element of discrimination.

She had submitted that the methodology adopted is uniformly applicable to all officers.

"The aim of a confidential report is to have an objective assessment of an officer's competence, employability and potential as observed during the period covered by the report, primarily for organisational requirements," she had said.

Bhati said it was an impression sought to be created that there was discrimination but statistics since 1991 showed women officers were not discriminated against their male counterparts.

"In the Army, we have been following a very strict regime and there is no question of discrimination, as the selection board does not have the name of the officer before it. We are a professional army and do err sometime and AFT and courts have corrected us," she had said.

Dealing with the arguments of non-consideration of "criteria appointment" or difficult area posting in the ACR of women officers, Bhati had said such appointments were inconsequential and the officers were marked in average in the annual confidential reports.

Bhati elaborated that there were no marks or distinction of "criteria" or "non criteria" appointments for PC selection board and criteria appointments are specified for promotion to colonel, brigadier, major general and lieutenant general ranks.

She said below seven years of service, all confidential reports (CR) are non criteria reports and there are inherent checks available within the system for internal assessment of CRs to guard against subjectivity and bias assessment.

There are several aspects in the ACR which are considered at the time of grant of permanent commission. Criteria appointment is not the sole criteria which is considered, Bhati had submitted.

The women officers have contended that despite being posted in difficult areas and having participated in operations like Galwan, Balakot and the most recent Operation Sindoor, they were not considered for the PC.

A criteria appointment usually means an officer given command of a post in a difficult and hostile area or operation.

Bhati said the ratio of regular officers to the corresponding support staff through SSC against the desired ratio of 1:1.1 was very skewed.

"Over a period of time due to low subscription of Short Service Commission and low selection rates of in Service entries, the numbers in support cadre has decreased majorly and this deficiency had to be made up by recruiting more regular officers. However, organisational requirements and aspirations of officers dictate otherwise," she submitted. PTI MNL MNL AMK AMK