Women Army officers allege in SC discrimination in grant of PC, say verdicts not followed

New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI) The Short Service Commission (SSC) women Army officers on Thursday told the Supreme Court that they were discriminated against in the grant of permanent commission as compared to their male counterparts, despite having participated in crucial operations like in Galwan, Balakot and the recent Operation Sindoor.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh was told by serving and discharged women officers that the Centre has repeatedly violated the directions issued by the apex court in 2020 and in 2021.

"They have repeatedly violated the mandamus issued in 2020 and in 2021 and discriminated in the grant of permanent commission to women officers," senior advocate V Mohana, appearing for some officers, told the bench.

Mohana said the Centre blamed the shortage of vacancies for the low intake of women officers for permanent commission, but since 2021, there have been numerous occasions when the cap of 250 officers was breached.

"These officers are very bright and performed well in their duties even in crucial operations like Galwan, Balakot and recent Operation Sindoor besides serving in several hostile areas at par with their male counterparts," she submitted and pointed to the discrimination in evaluation of their annual confidential reports.

Other women officers, who have challenged their denial of permanent commission, were represented by senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, senior advocate Abhinav Mukherjee, senior advocate Rekha Palli and other lawyers.

The arguments on behalf of women officers concluded, and the bench posted the matter for further hearing on September 24, when additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, on behalf of the Centre, will respond to the submissions.

The top court had said it would thereafter hear the pleas filed by Naval officers, followed by officers in the Air Force who have also been aggrieved by the denial of PC.

On Wednesday, the top court expressed surprise over the alleged "arbitrariness" in the consideration of "criteria appointment" for SSC women Army officers seeking PC as compared to their male counterparts.

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

The top court, while hearing a plea of 13 women Army officers challenging the denial of permanent commission to them, had questioned how there can be two parameters for male and female officers, who undergo the same training and postings.

Senior advocate Maneka Guruswamy, appearing for the 13 officers along with advocate Amrita Panda, said the appellants are aggrieved by the casual grading received despite undergoing the same training and postings as their male counterparts.

"This grading resulted from a subjective assessment conducted at a time when they were not eligible for Permanent Commission (PC). Unlike male officers, whose performance was continuously assessed with PC in mind, the Appellants' ACRs froze in 2019, prior to this court's ruling granting women eligibility for PC in 2020," Guruswamy had submitted.

She had pointed out that among the 13 officers she represented, Lt Col Vanita Padhi was posted in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Congo, Lt Col Chandni Mishra was the first woman pilot in 88 countries to have flown Manoeuvrable Expendable Aerial Target (MEAT) and Lt. Col Geeta Sharma has also been posted in High Altitude Areas like Ladakh and Major Khim has served in Akhnoor (near Pakistan Border).

Guruswamy had further said among the officers, Lt Col Geeta Sharma has served on Criteria Appointments as Officer Commanding Communication for Operation Galwan in Ladakh; Lt Col Swati Rawat as Officer Commanding Workshop for Operation Sindoor and Lt Col Swati Rawat in Counter Insurgency area at Basauli of Jammu and Kashmir and Lt Col Vanita Padhi as Company Commander in Firozpur, Border Area of Punjab during Operation Sindoor.

"However, unlike their male counterparts, their (women officers) ACRs did not reflect this as a Criteria Appointment. For male officers, ACRs for such appointments were categorised as Criteria Reports, with explicit mention of the appointment being a Criteria Appointment, which are considered for the grant of PC," she submitted.

On August 6, the top court was informed that female and male officers of the Indian Army comprise two unequal and distinct classes, and cannot be considered together for the grant of permanent commission on the same criteria and cut-off marks.

The officers have relied upon the 2020 Babita Puniya case and 2021 Nishita case verdicts of the apex court, by which the Army was directed to grant them permanent commission.

In its February 17, 2020, decision, the top court said absolute exclusion of women from all positions, except staff assignments, in the Army was indefensible, and their blanket non-consideration for command appointments without any justification could not be sustained in law.

The apex court, which allowed PC to women officers in the Army, said an absolute prohibition of women SSC officers to obtain anything but staff appointments evidently did not fulfil the purpose of granting PC as a means of career advancement in the Army.

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. PTI MNL RHL