Supreme Court grants pensionary benefits to women officers denied permanent commission

A bench held that the officers would be 'deemed' to have completed the minimum qualifying service of 20 years required for a pension, even if they were released from service earlier.

New Delhi: In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that women Short Service Commission (SSC) officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who were denied Permanent Commission due to arbitrary assessment, are entitled to full pensionary benefits.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh held that the officers would be "deemed" to have completed the minimum qualifying service of 20 years required for a pension, even if they were released from service earlier.

The judgment came on a batch of petitions, including those filed by Wing Commander Sucheta Edan and others, challenging the denial of Permanent Commission (PC) based on policy changes in 2019 and previous Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) rulings.

Reading the operative parts of the judgment, the CJI said the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) for women officers were often graded "casually" under the assumption that they would not be eligible for career progression or PC.

"The ACRs were written with the presumption that they would not undergo career progression. This adversely affected their overall merit," the CJI said.

The bench separately dealt with the denial of PC to SSC women officers of the Air Force, Navy and Army.

Regarding the Air Force, the bench found that the "Service Length Criteria" and "Minimum Performance Criteria" introduced in 2019 were implemented in haste, denying officers a reasonable opportunity to meet them.

Using its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, which empowers the top court to pass any orders to do complete justice, the bench said, as a one-time measure, all SSC officers considered for PC in selection boards held in 2019, 2020, and 2021, including those released in 2021, will be deemed to have completed 20 years of qualifying service.

It said the pension will be fixed based on this 20-year deemed service, effective from November 1, 2025.

The court, however, declined to order reinstatement, citing "operational effectiveness", but said that this could not be a ground to deny financial benefits.

Dealing with issues pertaining to the Army and Navy, it found similar flaws in their assessment models and said the failure to disclose evaluation criteria adversely impacted these officers.

The court rejected the plea for notional time-scale promotions to the rank of Wing Commander for those not in active service.

The detailed judgement is awaited.

Earlier, the Centre had defended its policy, saying that the Army's processes were gender-neutral and that "elimination is part of a policy to keep the forces young."