‘Systemic bias’ led to denial of permanent commission to women officers in military: SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (March 24) stated that “systematic bias” within the armed forces has resulted in the denial of permanent commission (PC) to several women officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The remarks were made by a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh as they granted relief to several such women officers.

Findings on evaluation and discrimination

The top court further stated that the career evaluations of the concerned women officers were conducted on presumptions that had an adverse effect on the progress of their careers.

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"The inequality of opportunities has affected their inter se merit. They were categorised as unfit for long-term career progression...We find that denial of Permanent Commission was a consequence of systemic discrimination and not finding them fit for career progression. Thus, we invoke Article 142 to render complete justice," stated the top court.

"This presumption (that women officers were unfit for long-term career progression) undermined the assessment of their suitability for such progression once it became available, and thus adversely affected their overall merit in the consideration for Permanent Commission,” added the court as quoted by the Bar and Bench.

Observations and directions for Air Force

As for the Air Force, the court stated that "The Service Length Criteria of the applicants, who were never offered an opportunity to be assessed for career progression, ought not to have been considered as indicative of their suitability, nor used to deny them the grant of Permanent Commission."

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Elaborating further, the court described the denial of permanent commission to women officers as flawed and passed several directions to ensure that the permanent commission earlier granted to some women officers by the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) or Section Boards did not get disrupted.

Relief for those who exited service

The court observed that in cases where women officers had already exited service following the denial of permanent commission, they would be entitled to pensionary and other consequential benefits.

The Court clarified that, as a one-time measure, such officers would be deemed to have completed 20 years of service for the purpose of extending these benefits.

The backdrop

The matter pertained to a batch of petitions filed by women officers appointed under the Short Service Commission (SSC), who had sought the grant of PC in their respective services.

Officers inducted under the SSC serve for a fixed tenure, which is ordinarily extendable up to 14 years. In the absence of a grant of PC, such officers are required to retire upon completion of their tenure.

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Several women officers had earlier approached the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) challenging the denial of PC. The issue subsequently came before the Supreme Court on appeal, where multiple petitions raising similar grievances were taken up together.

Among the lead matters were petitions filed by officers, including Wing Commander Sucheta Edan and others, who questioned the manner in which the policy governing the grant of PC had been applied to women officers in the Air Force.