Eleven women Army officers have moved the Supreme Court seeking compliance of its directions where it asked the Centre to grant them permanent commission, promotions and consequential benefits, PTI reported on Saturday.
On February 17 in a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court had directed that women officers in the Army be granted a permanent commission, rejecting the Centre’s stand of their physiological limitations as being based on “stereotypes” and “gender discrimination against women”.
In their plea, Lieutenant Colonel Ashu Yadav and 10 other women officers submitted that the court’s directions were not being complied with in “letter and spirit”. The plea alleged that the procedures for granting permanent commission were “vitiated with arbitrariness, unfairness and unreasonableness”.
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud will take up the petition for hearing on January 27, according to PTI.
The plea further accused the Centre of unequal treatment to the women officers by trapping them into technical and procedural formalities. It contended that the general instructions released by the Indian Army on August 1 last year are “full of ambiguities as it contains provisions which seek to eliminate the women officers rather than giving them a fair chance or opportunity of permanent commission”.
Citing an example, the plea pointed out that women officers who were above 45 years and approaching menopause or those who were unmarried were made to undergo pregnancy tests. The petitioners said that it was apprehended that applying such procedure on women officers was only to render them unfit.
The conduct of the Centre suggests that it is “playing a psychological warfare with these women officers”, the plea stated.
The plea also mentioned that several women officers who have continued their services beyond 20 years, performing all duties as their male counterparts, without any obstruction due to physiological changes were also been subjected to the permanent commission board.
The officers also submitted that they have been deprived of the provision for time-scale promotion recognised by the Indian Army which was introduced through a notification on December 21, 2004. According to it, all officers who have completed the service period of 26 years without promotion to the rank of colonel by selection shall be so promoted by time scale.
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