NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Army for “arbitrarily” denying promotion to women permanent commission officers, and asked the authorities to reconvene the special selection board within two weeks for their promotion, without disturbing those already promoted to Colonel rank.
Hearing a batch of pleas filed by women officers who were denied empanelment for promotion to the rank of Colonel, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud noted that the cut-off for considering their confidential reports (CRs) for promotion was arbitrary and aimed at equating them to their male counterparts.
“Women officers have been compelled to move this court for realisation of their rights. The manner in which the women officers have been denied empanelment as Colonel based on selection process is arbitrary,” remarked the bench, also comprising judges J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, adding it is contrary to the policy circular of Army and earlier apex court orders.
In a landmark verdict on February 17, 2020, the Supreme Court had directed that women officers in the Army be granted permanent commission, rejecting the Centre’s stand on their “physiological limitations” as being based on “sex stereotypes” and “gender discrimination”.The bench noted that the policy framework set out makes it clear that all CRs after nine years of service were required to be taken into consideration.
Defending their part, the Army and the Centre relied on their policy framework and a Supreme Court judgment of March 2021, which laid common benchmarks for men and women Short Service Commission officers to be considered for permanent commission.The apex court also rejected the submission that there was inadequate number of vacancies for accommodating the officers.
