The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted Permanent Commission to women military officers, terming it a 'complete justice'. The landmark ruling ensures gender equality within the armed forces, allowing women to serve on par with their male counterparts.
The apex court ruled that women Short Service Commission officers (SSC) of the Army, Navy and Air Force who were denied Permanent Commission and released after 14 years of service will be entitled to pension benefits.
We invoke Article 142 to grant such relief which molded towards complete justice, the top court said.
Why Is Today's Ruling Significant?
A permanent commission in the armed forces is a career path that allows an officer to serve until retirement age. Unlike an 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. 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.
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No Discrimination In Grant Of Permanent Commission: Centre Tells SC
Earlier in December, the Centre 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.
Refuting the allegation of bias and discrimination raised by some SSC officers who were denied permanent commission, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya 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."
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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 the 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.
(With PTI Inputs)