New-Delhi: In a landmark judgement ensuring greater gender equality in the armed forces, the Supreme Court upheld that women Short Service Commission (SSC) officers are entitled to Permanent Commission, exercising its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice NK Singh, in three judgments, each addressing the cases of officers from Army, Navy and the Air Force, found that Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) and selection processes in all three services were shaped by long-standing assumptions that women and certain categories of officers would not have sustained careers, resulting in uneven playing fields in comparative merit assessments.
“The inequality of opportunities has affected their inter se merit. They were categorised as unfit for long-term career progression. The respondents have correctly measured the vacancies. The male officers cannot expect that the vacancies will expect the vacancies to be exclusively male. Thus, we find that denial of permanent commission was a consequence of systemic discrimination and not finding them fit for career progression, we invoke Article 142 to render complete justice. Thus, PC grants to SCCOs shall not be disrupted. As a one-time measure, the woman SCCO and intervenors who were relieved from service during the proceedings at any level shall be deemed to have completed substantial service of 20 years and will be entitled to pension but not the arrears in pay,” the CJI said.
In the Navy, it protected officers already granted PC and extended eligibility for PC to specified categories of women and even certain male officers who were earlier excluded. In the Air Force, it recognised flaws in evaluation and granted pensionary benefits as a one-time measure to those who were considered but not selected, while allowing others to pursue remedies.
In the Air Force, the Court further held that performance benchmarks were implemented hastily, vitiating the selection process, while in the Navy, it found a lack of transparency in evaluation criteria and vacancy disclosures.
The Court based its ruling on the finding that the entire evaluation system was structurally biased. It noted that Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) were written on the assumption that women would not have long-term careers, leading to casual or unfair grading.
It also found that women were denied “criteria appointments” and “career enhancement courses” because they were earlier ineligible for PC, which directly lowered their merit when they later became eligible.
Comments are closed.