“THE right to equality is a right to rationality,” observed a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on February 17 while ruling on the appointment of women officers in permanent commissions of the Indian Army and in command positions. The landmark verdict, delivered by Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi, ruled that all serving women officers on the short service commission (SSC) would be considered for the grant of permanent commissions on the same terms as their male counterparts. Even those women officers who did not opt for a permanent commission but had completed 14 years of service could continue in service until they reached the point where they would be eligible for pensionable benefits. The judgment, with its wide-ranging observations on gender equality, is being seen as a blow for women’s rights and has been hailed by women’s organisations. Women SSC officers with over 20 years of service who were not granted a permanent commission would retire with pension benefits, the bench ruled.
The court pulled up the Central government for delaying the implementation of a March 2010 Delhi High Court order that ruled that women officers in the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army should be considered for permanent commissions. Terming the exclusion of women from all except staff appointments as indefensible, the bench held that if the Army had cogent reasons for excluding women from a particular command appointment it could present them to future courts if necessary. It held that the blanket nonconsideration of women for criteria or command appointments was unsustainable in law and said that the Army could provide “no justification in discharging its burden as to why women across the board should not be considered for any criteria or command appointments”. The arguments for denying women command positions by both the Union government and the Army were rejected by the court.
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