Indian SC orders granting permanent commission to 39 women officers

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the plea of Indian government, the Supreme Court of India directed the government to issue orders for granting permanent commission (PC) to 39 Women Short Service Commission Officers (WSSCO) in seven working days.

The government informed the top court that after re-examining the case of each 72 women SSC officers, 39 officers can be considered for PC as one officer has decided to quit, seven have been found medically unfit and 25 officers cannot be granted PC as they have adverse ACR report of indiscipline and disobedience and poor operational report.

According to the reports, the government earlier told the top court that all these 72 WSSCOs have been found unfit for the grant of PC in the Army. “The ASG has submitted that in respect of these (25) officers, they are not found to be eligible on the disciplinary grounds and in certain cases, on other issues, such as integrity, or disobedience of lawful orders and weak operational reports. Moreover, it has been submitted that the male counterparts of these officers have been denied the PC on similar grounds”, the bench noted.

The top court said that after the exercise of the grant of PC is completed, it would be necessary for the Centre to apprise the court of the ground which has resulted in the denial of PC to the remaining officers in the contempt proceedings.

On February 17, last year, in a landmark verdict, India’s top court had directed that women officers in the Army be granted a permanent commission, rejecting the Centre’s stand of their physiological limitations as being based on “sex stereotypes” and “gender discrimination against women”.

The apex court had directed that within three months, all the serving SSC women officers have to be considered for PCs irrespective of them having crossed 14 years or, as the case may be, 20 years of service.