The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the short service commission women officers in the Indian Navy to move the Armed Forces Tribunal for their reliefs including consequential promotion to the captain rank.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said the issue of promotion, which arose post the March 17, 2020 verdict of the apex court granting permanent commission to the women officers, required an in-depth consideration of individual cases by the Armed Forces Tribunal. (AFT).
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“It goes without saying that consideration of benchmark criteria, cut off date of benchmark criteria, evaluation of annual confidential report, overall evaluation and inter se seniority… are issues that would require in-depth consideration by the tribunal for effective determination,” the bench said.
It granted liberty to women officers to approach the AFT with their pleas and directed the tribunal to dispose of their petitions within four months as the issue of promotion of these officers was pending for over a decade.
During the hearing, counsel appearing for the women officers said in the March 17, 2020, the top court's verdict stated that the consequential benefits, including promotions would be granted to the aggrieved officers, but it was not given.
The bench said that if it was a case of non-compliance of directions of the court, then it called for a contempt petition and not a miscellaneous application, which these officers had filed.
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The counsel said a similar miscellaneous application was filed by women officers in the Indian Army and the apex court had granted the relief to the officers, who were on a similar footing.
Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, said after the 2020 verdict, the defense forces had been granting permanent commission but it had been due for the past three years.
“There are some who do not qualify the benchmark criteria. If they are aggrieved by the order of non-grant of promotion or permanent commission, they can very well approach the AFT,” he said.
The bench said several individual matters were coming before the court for non-consideration of their claim for promotion and it would be appropriate if all such matters were sent to the AFT for an effective adjudication as the issue involved facts and law.
On March 17, the top court in a landmark verdict paved the way for granting permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Navy, saying a level playing field ensures that women have the opportunity to overcome “histories of discrimination”.
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The battle for gender equality is about confronting the battles of the mind and history is replete with examples where women have been denied their just entitlements under law and the right to fair and equal treatment in the workplace, the top court had said.
In February, 2020, the top court had opened the doors for similarly-placed women officers in the Army.
It had said the Centre's contention that certain sea-going duties are ill-suited to women officers is premised on sex stereotypes that male officers are more suited to certain duties by virtue of the physiological characteristics and to accept it would be to “approve the socially ascribed gender roles which a commitment to equal worth and dignity of every individual believes”.
It had quashed the prospective effect of the Centre's controversial September 2008 policy, which restricted the grant of permanent commission to certain categories only.
The top court said that all the short service commission officers in the education, law and logistics cadres of the Navy, who are presently in service shall be considered for the grant of permanent commissions.
“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,” it said, adding that in the context of the armed forces, specious reasons have been advanced by decision makers and administrators, which range from physiology, motherhood and physical attributes to the male-dominated hierarchies.
