Government issues order for permanent commission of women officers in Army

The Defence Ministry on Thursday issued the formal sanction letter for grant of permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Army, culminating years of a legal battle by women in olive uniform who entered the force through the short service commission route.

The women officers will be now granted permanent commissions in eight combat support branches like Army Air Defence, Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, and Intelligence Corps.

In two other select branches – Judge and Advocate General and Army Educational Corps – they were getting the permanent commission since 2008.

“The Defence Ministry issued the formal Government Sanction Letter for grant of Permanent Commission to women officers in the Indian Army, paving the way for empowering them to shoulder larger roles in the organisation. The order specifies grant of PC to short service commissioned women officers in all ten streams of the Indian Army,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

The combat arms - Armoured Corps, Infantry, Mechanised Infantry, and Artillery – will continue to remain out of bounds for women.

Between 1992 (when the Army opened its gate to female officers) and 2008 when women got an equal opportunity in JAG and AEC branches, entry of women was allowed only through the short service commission, initially for five years and later for 14 years.

The wheels of change started rolling first following a 2010 ruling from Delhi High Court and finally a February 2020 verdict from the Supreme Court in which the top court tore into the argument put up by the government to deny women officers a place under the Sun.

The SC dismissed the government’s submission on “women are physiological weaker” and have important roles in family lives as “sex stereotypes” and observed that 70 years after the birth of an independent state, there was still a “need for change in attitudes and mindsets”.

“Reliance on the inherent physiological differences between men and women rests in a deeply entrenched stereotypical and constitutionally flawed notion that women are the ‘weaker’ sex and may not undertake tasks that are ‘too arduous’ for them. Such arguments don’t constitute a constitutionally valid basis for denying equal opportunity to women officers,” said the judgment authored by a two-member bench chaired by Justice D Y Chandrachud.

The SC ruling was on an appeal filed by the government on the Delhi High Court verdict.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court granted one more month’s time to the central government to implement its February order.

“The Army Headquarters had set in motion a series of preparatory actions for the conduct of the Permanent Commission Selection Board for affected women officers. The selection board will be scheduled as soon as all affected SSC women officers exercise their option and complete requisite documentation,” said the Defence Ministry statement.

As of February, there are 6,892 women officers in the Indian Army. The force recruited 949 women in 2017 and 819 women in 2018. The recruitment number dipped to 364 in 2019. Till February, 101 women were recruited in the Army.