Centre issues order for permanent commission of women officers in Army

The Central government has issued an order for the grant of permanent commission of women officers in the Army, Indian Express reported. The order came five months after the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, granted them parity with their male counterparts.

According to Army Spokesperson Col Aman Anand, the government order has paved the way for empowering of women officers to shoulder larger roles in the Army. “The order specifies grant of permanent commission to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers in all 10 streams of the Indian Army,” he said.

Col Anand said the 10 streams where the permanent commission of women officers were being made available include army air defence, signals, engineers, army aviation, electronics and mechanical engineers, army service corps and Intelligence corps in addition to the existing streams of judge and advocate general and army educational corps.

On February 17, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi directed the Centre to grant permanent commissions to all women officers in the Army within three months, saying there would not be any absolute bar on giving them command postings.

Under the Army Act of 1950, women were ineligible for employment in the regular army except in such corps, departments or branches which the central government may specify by way of notifications. Almost 42 years after the Act, the government issued a notification in January 1992 making women eligible for appointment as officers in five branches.

It included the Army Postal Service, Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) department, Army Education Corps (AEC), Army Ordinance Corps (Central Ammunition Depots and Material Management) and Army Service Corps (Food Scientists and Catering Officers).

(With inputs from agencies)