The Supreme Court expressed annoyance at the roadblocks faced by women officers on the way to permanent commission, promotion and consequential benefits, saying it showed a “difference in thinking” between the highest levels of leadership in the country and the Army bureaucracy.
“There is a different thinking that permeates the highest levels of leadership in the country and a different thinking in the bureaucracy of the Army. Bureaucracy is thinking how can these women protect the nation?... We have to bridge the gap,” Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a Bench, observed orally on Tuesday.
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The court was exasperated with a medical criterion by which women officers with 10 to over 20 years of service and in the age bracket of 35 to 50 years had to compete with gentlemen officers aged between 25-30 years for permanent commission.
“All these women have served the nation and are still serving. They are in saddle today. Army cannot be oblivious of the fact that after 26 years of service, they are only saying that at 52, don’t expect us to compete with men at the age of 25 and 30... If you apply the medical standards of a 25-year-old man to a woman officer who has gone through childbirth, how do we protect the rights of these officers?” Justice Chandrachud addressed Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain.
The court asked the government and the Army to take a considered decision to provide these women officers with a different standard.
“You will have to ensure that criteria that you apply for 25 and 30 year old men should not be applied to these women officers,” Justice Chandrachud told Mr. Jain.
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Mr. Jain however said that a dilution of medical and physical standards for permanent commission may become a cause for disgruntlement.
But the court made it a point to observe that these women officers would have been necessarily fit had the authorities not dragged on this case for nine years in court. The Delhi High Court had allowed permanent commission to women officers way back in 2011, but the Army had come to the apex court in appeal.
The hearing was based on a batch of petitions led by Lt. Ashu Yadav, represented by advocate Chitrangda Rastravara, against the “arbitrary norms” and “inequality” faced by women officers for permanent commission.
On February 17, the Supreme Court had declared that women officers in the Short Service Commission (SSC) should be provided an equal opportunity with their male counterparts for a shot at permanent commission and promotions. The apex court verdict had dismissed views that women were physiologically weaker than men as a “sex stereotype”.
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“Women officers of the Indian Army have brought laurels to the force… Their track record of service to the nation is beyond reproach. To cast aspersion on their abilities on the ground of gender is an affront not only to their dignity as women but to the dignity of the members of the Indian Army,” Justice Chandrachud had observed in that judgment. The verdict was the result of a 15-year battle by women officers for equality at workplace.
However, problems continue to plague the implementation of the judgment even after the passing of eight months.
Mr. Jain said over 600 SSC women officers were under scrutiny for grant of permanent commission.
