No discrimination in grant of permanent commission to women officers in IAF, Centre tells SC

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) The Centre on Wednesday refuted in the Supreme Court the allegation of discrimination and bias in grant of permanent commission to Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers in the Indian Air Force and said 243 men and 177 women were inducted since 2019.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh which reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas of women SSC officers challenging denial of permanent commission was told by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati that after the Centre granted its sanction in 2022, the IAF started induction of women officers through NDA.

And on successful completion of training, these officers will be directly granted permanent commission.

Refuting the allegation of bias and discrimination raised by some SSC officers who were denied permanent commission, Bhati, appearing for the Centre said, "These officers were fairly considered under the provisions of HRP 01/2019 (Human Resource Policy of 2019) on three eligible occasions but could not be granted PC due to not meeting minimum performance criteria (MPC) and/ or could not qualify merit against the available vacancies in their respective branches." She said the human resource policy of 2019 grants permanent commission to all SSCOs of GD (Ground duty) branch commissioned after May, 2006.

"This policy provides three chances of consideration on completion of 11th, 12th and 13th year of SSC tenure. In earlier policies only chance was available to SSCOs in the last year of their SSC tenure. From 2019 onwards 243 men SSCOs and 177 women SSCOs have been granted PC," Bhati submitted.

She said that the parameters are fixed in such a manner that forces remain young and competitive and therefore all officers cannot be granted permanent commission as against the limited vacancy.

CJI Kant said that the policy would be looked into by the court but as far as limited vacancy is concerned, nothing could be done as it is a policy decision.

Senior advocate Maneka Guruswamy, appearing for some of the petitioners, opposed the submission of Bhati and claimed that women officers were not fairly treated in grant of permanent commission as compared to men in IAF.

The bench, after hearing the arguments, asked the parties to submit their written submissions by December 19.

It said that the court which has till now separately heard the submissions of SSC women officers in Army, Navy and IAF would pronounce the verdict jointly as several of the issues and grounds of challenge to denial of permanent commission are common.

The bench said it would start hearing arguments related to coast guards at some other time.

On December 3, the top court said the nation is proud of SSC women Air Force officers irrespective of their specific roles in the armed forces.

"In a system, every duty is a responsible duty whether it is a ground duty or a duty in air... the country is proud of your services. We are proud of your services," the CJI had observed when a SSC woman officer argued herself to give account of her job profile in the Air Force.

Guruswamy had earlier referred to the 2019 HR (human resources) policy of the armed forces and assailed it by saying that the criteria for being considered for the PC were changed and this violated Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.

Referring to specific cases of some SSC officers, the senior lawyer had said they had the requisite CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) and yet they were not considered because their cases were not categories as they were pregnant and on maternity leave.

She referred to various judgements and said that it has been held that women staff cannot be discriminated against on account of pregnancy and maternity leaves.

On May 22, the top court had directed the Centre and the Indian Air Force not to release from service a woman officer, who was part of Operation Balakot and Operation Sindoor but was denied permanent commission.

It had sought responses from the Centre and the IAF on the plea of Wing Commander Nikita Pandey who claimed discrimination for being denied permanent commission.

"Our Air Force is one of the best organisations in the world. Officers are very commendable. The quality of coordination they have exhibited, I think it's unparalleled. Therefore, we always salute them. They are a big asset for the nation. They are the nation, in a way. Because of them, we are able to sleep at night," Justice Kant had said.

The bench noted a "tough life" for SSC officers began following their recruitment, which called for some incentive after 10 or 15 years to grant them permanent commission.

"That sense of uncertainty may not be good for the Armed Forces. It's a layman's suggestion, because we are not experts. On minimum benchmarks, there can't be a compromise," Justice Kant had said.

Since the 2020 verdict, the top court has passed several orders on the issue of permanent commission to women officers in the Armed Forces and similar orders were passed in the case of the Navy, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard.

A permanent commission in the armed forces is a career path that allows an officer to serve until the retirement age.

Unlike a SSC, which has a fixed term, a permanent commission offers a long-term career with opportunities for promotion to the highest ranks and full entitlement to pensions and other retirement benefits. PTI MNL ZMN