Navy to Grant Permanent Commission For Serving Women SSC Officers: SC
- shrey singh
- Mar 18, 2020
- 3 min read
Union of India v Lt Cdr Annie Nagaraja
Civil Appeal Nos 2182-87 of 2020 @ SLP (C) Nos. 30791-96 of 2015 decided 17.03.2020
Bench: Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi, JJ.
Facts
The present batch of Civil Appeals comes up for adjudication from two decisions, the first in point of time being that of the High Court of Delhi and the second, being that of the Armed Forces Tribunal.
Annie Nagaraja‘s case(High Court of Delhi)
Priya Khurana‘s case(Armed Forces Tribunal(AFT))
The case which was set up before the High Court was that women SSC officers of the Indian Army and Air Force had been granted Permanent Commissions (PCs) by the judgment of the Delhi High Court in Babita Puniya v Union of India (Babita Puniya). The Air Force implemented the decision of the Delhi High Court. The Indian Army was in appeal before this Court against the judgment in Babita Puniya.
The Union of India in the Ministry of Defence issued a policy letter dated 26 September 2008 granting Permanent Commissions to SSC officers in all the three branches of the Armed Forces. However, the offer was restricted to certain categories and was to operate prospectively for the benefit of future batches inducted on SSCs after January 2009.
A writ petition was filed in Delhi High Court in case of Annie Nagaraja v Union of India. The Delhi Court in this case held that Officers of the Navy who had opted for PC and were not granted PC but instead were granted extension of SSC and were not retired at the time of filing of these Writ Petitions and had attained the age of retirement during the pendency of the present petitions, they shall be offered PC within a period of 6 weeks from the date of this order.
The applicants before the AFT in this batch of cases were seven SSC officers recruited in 2002 in the Indian Navy in the Logistics and ATC cadres and the Education branch. They sought the grant of PCs and challenged the policy document dated 26 September 2008 as
unconstitutional to the extent that it operated prospectively and restricted the grant of PCs to a few cadres/branches. The officers challenged their release from service on the completion of their tenure of SSC engagement.
The AFT directed the Union Government for reconsideration of the request for the
grant of PCs to SSC officers within six months. Until this exercise was undertaken, the applicants were directed to be continued as SSC officers on existing terms and
conditions
Aggrieved by these 2 decisions, Union Government filled an appeal to Supreme Court
Question of Law
Whether women SSC officers in navy can be granted Permanent Commission?
Held
The Court held that :
1. The statutory bar on the engagement or enrolment of women in the Indian Navy has been lifted
2. The stipulation in the policy letter dated 26 September 2008 making grant of permanent commission prospective and restricting its application to specified cadres/branches of the Indian Navy shall not be enforced;
3. The provisions of the implementation guidelines dated 3 December 2008, to the extent that they are made prospective and restricted to specified cadres are quashed and set aside;
4. The period of service after which women SSC officers shall be entitled to submit applications for the grant of PCs shall be the same as their male counterparts;
5. SSC officers who are found suitable for the grant of PC shall be entitled to all consequential benefits including arrears of pay, promotions and retiral benefits as and when due;
Furthermore, the Supreme Court in exercise of the power conferred by Article 142 of the Constitution, directed as a one-time measure, SSC officers in the ATC cadre in Annie Nagaraja’s case shall be entitled to pensionary benefits. SSC officers in the ATC cadre in Priya Khurana’s case, being inducted in pursuance of the specific representation contained in the advertisements pursuant to which they were inducted, shall be considered for the grant of PCs.
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