(Image source from: newsd.in)

The Supreme Court has passed an order on Monday which has ordered the Indian Army to grant permanent commission to women within three months and will also be eligible for command posting on par with the male officers and has rejected the stereotypes which say that women are only responsible for the domestic duties.

A time period of three months has been granted to the Centre by a bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi. The bench has granted the time period to the Centre in order to implement the orders that have been made and has also slammed the Centre for denying the provision of equal opportunities to the women officers by raising the ground of social norms, the limitations that are based regarding the physiology and also the family obligations that are associated with women.

The bench has said that the permanent commission in Army must also be provided to the women officers and also a change of mindset is required on part of the government in order to put an end to the discrimination based on the gender in the armed forces.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the permanent commission would be granted to all the Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers who are less than 14 as well as beyond 14 years of service as it has noted that there exists no ground which would deny the permanent commission to the women officers even though they have completed 14 years.

At present, the women officers can only serve for 10-14 years in the Short Service Commission and the entry of women were said to be allowed into Army Service Corps, Ordnance, Education Corps, Judge Advocate General, Engineers, Signals, Intelligence and Electrical and the branches of Mechanical Engineering and there exists no option for the allowance of women in the combat roles like infantry, armoured, mechanized infantry, aviation and artillery.

The Supreme Court has said that the arguments that have been made by the Centre which has raised the issue of limitations based on physiology and the social norms and has denied the opportunities for the women officers is now not acceptable as the women officers have performed exceptionally well and brought laurels.

The Supreme Court has cited the examples of Captain Tanya Shergill and Captain Madhumita and also the other women officers who are convoy commanders in Leh and Udhamnagar and also among the other places.

By Shrithika Kushangi