Female military officer (symbolic photo)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday told the Center not to free women military officers from the service that has challenged the decision to refuse to give them a permanent commission (PC). The court said that “his morale should not be dropped” in the current situation. The bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh listed the petitions filed by 69 officers for hearing in August, saying that they should not be freed from service until the next hearing.
Justice Chandrakant said, “In the current situation, we should not make their morale to fall. They are talented officers, you can take their services elsewhere. It is not time to ask them to wander around in the Supreme Court.
‘Army needs young officers’
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Center, said that it was an administrative decision based on the policy of keeping the armed forces youth. He urged the apex court not to ban him from being freed from service and said that the Indian Army needs young officers and only 250 personnel are to be given permanent commission every year.
Colonel Sophia Qureshi mentioned
Senior advocate Maneka Guruswami, appearing for Colonel Geeta Sharma, mentioned the case of Colonel Sofia Qureshi, who is one of the 2 female officers who informed the media about ‘Operation Sindoor’ on 7 and 8 May. Guruswami said that Colonel Qureshi had to knock the door of this court for similar relief related to permanent commission and now he has made the country proud.
What did the Supreme Court say?
The bench said that the case before the apex court is completely legal and has nothing to do with the achievements of the authorities. The apex court said on February 17, 2020 that the move to keep women completely excluded from all positions except staff appointments in the army could not be defended and the step of not considering them without justification for command appointments could not be maintained under the law.
The court had allowed permanent commission of women officers in the army and described the government’s plea as opposed to the principle of equality and unlike the principle of equality, which was asked not to appoint in the command headquarters citing physical limits and social trends. The court then said that women officials in the past have raised the value of the country and change the mentality of the government is necessary to end discrimination on the basis of gender basis in the armed forces. Since the 2020 verdict, the apex court has passed several orders on the issue of permanent commission to women officials in the armed forces and similar orders were passed in the case of Navy, Indian Air Force and Coast Guard. (With language inputs)
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