Women Army officers eligible for permanent commission: SC

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  Women Army officers eligible for permanent commission: SC

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• Context - The SC dismissed the submissions of Union government that women are physiologically weaker than men as a “sex stereotype” and declared that Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers are eligible for permanent commission and command posts in the Army irrespective of their years of service.
• Details - The verdict came on a nearly 10-year-old appeal filed by the government against a March 12, 2010 decision of the Delhi High Court to grant SSC women officers permanent commission. The Supreme Court ordered the government to implement its judgment in three months.
• What government said? - The order castigated the government for submitting a note containing written submissions portraying women as physiologically unfit for answering the “call beyond duty” of the Army. The note had shown women officers in a poor light, saying isolation and hardships would eat into their resolve and they would have to heed to the call of pregnancy, childbirth and family. The note had mentioned that women ran the risk of capture by enemy and being taken prisoner of war.
• What the court said? - Justice Chandrachud, who wrote the judgment, countered that 30% of women officers were deputed in conflict zones. He said the note screamed of the age-old patriarchal notion that domestic obligations rested only with women. The court found the remarks in the note not only constitutionally invalid but also discriminatory, affecting the dignity of women officers.
• Important Features – 

1. The judgment recorded that the policy statement had endorsed permanent commission for SSC women officers in 10 streams of the ‘Combat Support Arms’ and ‘Services’ sections. 
2. These are Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Army Air Defence, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps, Army Ordinance Corps and Intelligence, in addition to the existing streams of Judge Advocate General (JAG) and Army Education Corps.
3. SSC for women is available only in the ‘Combat Support Arms’ and ‘Services’ wings of the Army.
4. he court dismissed the government’s stand that only women officers with less than 14 years of service ought to be considered for permanent commission, and those with over 20 years of service should be pensioned immediately.
5. Applying the judgment retrospectively, the court declared that all serving women officers would be eligible for permanent commission. 
6. The court held that a blanket ban of women SSC officers from command posts cannot be sustained by law.
7. The court held that since command appointments were not automatic for men officers, so would it be for women. It was left to the Army to take a call on a case-to-case basis.

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