Permanent Commission For Women Officers

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The News

On 17^th February 2020, the Supreme Court directed that women officers of the Indian Army, serving under Short Service Commission, be considered for grant of Permanent Commission.
This order has brought women officers in 10 streams of the Army at par with their male counterparts in all respects, setting aside longstanding objections of the government.

In SSC, officers are inducted under the 10+4 scheme.
PC is granted to SSC officers subject to service requirement and availability of vacancies.
Women can only join the armed forced through SSC; they are not offered ab initio permanent commission in any of the forces.
While male SSC officers could opt for permanent commission at the end of 10 years of service, this option was not available to women officers.
They were, thus, kept out of any command appointment.

2003 – A case was first filed in the Delhi High Court by women officers seeking Permanent commission
2010 – High court rules in their favour.
But the order was never implemented, and was challenged in the Supreme Court by the government.

The Union government proposed in February 2019 (while the case was pending in SC) that permanent commission should be given to SSC-recruited women officers with less than 14 years of service.
But only in “staff appointments” and not in command roles in specific non-combat streams.

The SC has done away with all discrimination on the basis of years of service for grant of PC in 10 streams of combat support arms and services, bringing them on a par with male officers.
It has also removed the restriction of women officers only being allowed to serve in staff appointments, which is the most significant and far-reaching aspect of the judgment.

This case was only about permanent commission and command roles in non-combat streams of the army.
Women officers are still not allowed to serve in combat units like the Infantry, the Armoured corps and Mechanised infantry .
The permanent commission with consequential seniority and pensionary benefits will be restricted to the Army’s non-combat units, including

In a judgment hailed for creating a new equality paradigm in the armed forces, Supreme court, upholding a 2010 Delhi high court verdict, ruled that women officers who joined the Indian Army through Short Service Commission (SSC) are entitled to permanent commission (PC).
Calling for a change of mindset on the part of the government to put an end to gender bias in the armed forces, the apex court directed that within three months, all serving Short Service Commission(SSC) women officers will have to be considered for Permanent Commission (PC) irrespective of their tenure in service.

In the affidavit filed by the central government in May 4, 2018, it had submitted that restrictions on the employability of women in the Army are “inescapable due to the peculiar operational compulsions of the Army”.

The technical issue of terms of tenure under SSC
That male soldiers are not “mentally schooled” to accept women in command roles
Women are not fit for command roles, which might involve combat, because of their “physiological differences” with men.

The court rejected that argument that it would be a “greater challenge” for women officers to meet the hazards of service “owing to their prolonged absence during pregnancy, motherhood and domestic obligations towards their children and families”.
Such arguments, the court said, are founded on a strong stereotype which assumes that domestic obligations rest solely on women.
Similar cases concerning Indian Navy and Indian Air Force are pending before the Supreme Court.
The judgment will immediately impact 322 women officers in the army.

The induction of women officers in the Army started in 1992.
They were commissioned for a period of five years in certain chosen streams such as Army Education Corps, Corps of Signals, Intelligence Corps, and Corps of Engineers.
Recruits under the Women Special Entry Scheme (WSES) had a shorter pre-commission training period than their male counterparts who were commissioned under the Short Service Commission (SSC) scheme.
In 2006, the WSES scheme was replaced with the SSC scheme, which was extended to women officers.
They were commissioned for a period of 10 years, extendable up to 14 years.
Serving WSES officers were given the option to move to the new SSC scheme, or to continue under the erstwhile WSES.
They were to be however, restricted to roles in streams specified earlier — which excluded combat arms such as infantry and armoured corps.
PC was already available(2008 onwards) to SSC-recruited women officers in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) and Army Education Corps (AEC)