Women Will Sail With The Same Efficiency
The Supreme Court's two judge bench, headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, upheld
the validity of the 2015 verdict of the Delhi High Court. He ruled that there
should be no discrimination in grating a permanent commission to women in the
Indian Navy. This historic judgment came in March 2020. The court further
directed the Union government to grant permanent commission to women serving in
the navy within the next three months.
Permanent commission means that an officer can serve his/her full term till
he/she officially retires. Whereas, the Short Service commission, previously
granted to women, meant that the officer's career would be of a limited period.
Justice Rastogi and Justice Chandrachud said that denying equal rights to women
who have selflessly served the country would be a serious miscarriage of
justice.
Women were denied permanent commission on stereotypical reasons like physiology,
motherhood and physical attributes.
This judgment is based on a case filed in February 2008 by 17 SSC women
officers. They were represented by senior advocate Aishwarya Bhati. They were
denied a permanent commission and were discharged despite completing 14 years of
service as SSC officers.
A government policy letter released on 26 February 2006 awarding permanent
commissions to SSC officers in all three branches of the Armed Forces was
questioned. The deal was, however, limited to certain categories and was
intended to work prospectively for the benefit of potential lots launched after
January 2009 on SSCs.
The court quashed the stipulation in the policy letter of September 26, 2008 in
a number of directions, prospectively making a permanent commission for women
and limiting its implementation to specified cadres/branches of the Navy. It
directed that all consequential benefits, including arrears of pay, promotions
and retirement benefits as and when due, should be entitled to SSC female
officers considered necessary for the award of a permanent commission.
SSC women officers who were denied consideration for the grant of permanent
commissions on the ground that they were inducted before the issuance of the
September 26, 2008 letter and those who are not present in service shall be
considered to have completed substantive pensionable service as a one-time
measure.
In the February 2020 judgment, Justice Chandrachud referred to the submission
that vessels of Russian origin are deployed by the Navy. According to the
submission, the Russian origin vessels have no bathrooms for women officers. The
court called these submissions both illusory and without any foundation and
hence found no reason to stop women from obtaining a permanent commission. The
court said that there could be no discrimination between men and women when it
came to granting permanent commission. Hence the ban was lifted making this a
historic judgment. The court worked on the principle Women can sail with the
same efficiency.
A permanent commission entitles an officer to serve till his/her retirement
whereas a Short Service Commission allows the officer to serve for only ten
years which can only be extended for four more years or a total of fourteen
years.
The case pertains to appeals filed by the Union government against a September
2015 judgment of Delhi High Court that held there was no convincing, concrete
and valid reason as to why serving women officers were excluded from
consideration for permanent commission
The Supreme Court had in February this year, in a similar case relating to the
Indian Army, ruled that SSC women officers in service are entitled to permanent
commission.
Women officers have worked shoulder to shoulder with their men counterparts in
every walk of service. The supposed explanations based on duties at sea or
Russian vessels are devices adopted to justify an action which is not germane to
the proper discharge of duties and the maintenance of discipline among members
of the Armed Forces, the court said.
However, the bench did not extend the advantage of its ruling to those officers
of the SSC who have since retired, instead of awarding them pension benefits and
compensation of 25 lakh for any loss of opportunity.
They range from physiology, motherhood and physical features to hierarchies
dominated by men, the court said. A 101 excuses are no answer to the
constitutional entitlement to dignity, which attaches to every individual
irrespective of gender, to fair and equal conditions of work and to a level
playing field. A level playing field ensures that women have the opportunity to
overcome their histories of discrimination with the surest of responses based on
their competence, ability and performance.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra, and Indira Banerjee
announced that the grant of PC to Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers
in the Indian Navy would be extended until 31 December. In June, the Centre
submitted a proposal to extend the deadline by six months, citing the COVID-19
pandemic.
Law Article in India
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