PERMANENT COMMISSION: WOMEN ARMY OFFICERS GET SC BREATHER
NEW DELHI: In a breather for women short service commission officers in the Army who were denied permanent commission on medical grounds and merit, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre not to relieve them from service till their issue comes up before the court next on January 18. Of 615 women SSC officers who applied for permanent commission, only 422 were selected on merit by a board that met in September this year.
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CLOSE TO 60 WOMEN SSC OFFICERS HAD APPROACHED THE SC AGAINST THE CRITERIA ADOPTED BY THE SELECTION BOARD IN ARRIVING AT ITS DECISION
NEW DELHI: In a breather for women short service commission (SSC) officers in the army who were denied permanent commission on medical grounds and merit, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre not to relieve them from service till their issue comes up before the court on January 18.
Of 615 women SSC officers who applied for permanent commission, only 422 were selected on merit by a special 5 Selection Board (SB-5) that met in September this year.
Further, on medical scrutiny, only 277 were declared fit causing more heartburn for the women officers who fought a long-drawn legal battle for 15 years till the SC on February 17, 2020 directed the army to treat women SSC officers at par with their male counterparts for getting PC and command roles in army’s non-combat streams.
Close to 60 women SSC officers had approached the SC against the criteria adopted by the Selection Board in arriving at its decision. The officers demanded stay on any action to be taken by Army pursuant to the decision of the SB-5. Moving an application on their behalf, advocate Archana Pathak Dave said, “The non-grant of PC is on the ground that they are not falling in ‘merit’. The term merit is not defined and the parameters assessing/yardstick applicable on such merit are vague and unknown in absence of a policy for granting PC to women officers.”
On December 18, the bench of justices DY Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee took up their application and asked the Army and Ministry of Defence whether any action was intended before it takes up the matter in January.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain informed the court that the process of relieving a SSC officer takes two or three months and nothing will happen in the meantime.
While the order of the court has come as a temporary relief for the women SSC officers, they must prepare for a long legal battle as the army is adamant that no review of the SB-5 decision or relaxation in medical criteria for women SSC officers not found to be in top shape (SHAPE-1 category) is possible. The army filed an affidavit in SC on December 14 stating that medical criterion of an army officer is an “intrinsic and inseparable” part of the process for grant of PC.
Responding to the petitioners’demand to relax medical criteria, the army said, “Any disease arising out of physiological changes due to childbirth such as obesity are age and gender independent….
The army can perform its mandated task if the officers at the helm of affairs and the troops who execute the tasks are in good medical condition, so that their medical, cognitive and physical faculties are undiminished.”