Rajnath Singh hails SC’s judgement on permanent commission for women in armed forces

Hailing the Supreme Court 's decision on Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that he has always supported the idea of the permanent commission for women and announced the change in policy in his Independence Day speech in 2018. He said that ahead of SC's verdict, a historic decision to allow women in field operations came when the then defence minister Sitharaman announced that women will be inducted into the Military Police. He gave a detailed list of women in armed forces. 

Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre as SC backs permanent commission for women officers in Forces

He added: "As of Jan 2019, 3.89 percent of the army personnel comprised women, while 6.7 per cent of the navy & 13.28 percent of the air force personnel were women as of June 2019. In 2019, the defence ministry granted a permanent commission to women in all 10 branches of the Indian Amry, including Signal Corps, intelligence, aviation, engineering, service corps and ordinance corps. The plan was to recruit women in roles ranging from probing crime cases to assisting the army in field operations wherever required. There have been instances where certain women officers have been in the job for nearly twenty years, while SSC term terminates in fourteen years."

Historic decision

The Supreme Court on Monday pronounced its verdict on setting up of a permanent commission for women in the armed forces. The apex court stated that after the Delhi High Court's 2010 judgment, it was an obligation of the Centre to set up the permanent commission for women in the armed forces in all areas but combat positions, and not doing so is a violation of the court's orders. The Supreme Court in its order also observed that there was a requirement for a change of mindset when it came to 'gender stereotypes' and setting up of a commission would help women hold the positions of command thereby slowly challenging these stereotypes. 

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Key Takeaways of the verdict

The order of the SC comes on the recent plea by the Ministry of Defence in the Delhi High Court. A massive controversy had broken out when the Centre had stated that the women were not 'fit' to give orders since the men will be unwilling to take orders in the subordinate positions. It had stated that most men in the army are brought in from rural areas and such men would not be willing to take orders from women in dominant positions. It also stated that in times of war, women in command would be hard hit when they would be taken as prisoners of war and hence they needed to be kept away from positions of command.

The SC, however, upheld the 2010 Delhi HC judgment to direct that Permanent Commission must be given to all women officers in the Army irrespective of their years of service. The apex court stated that this was necessary to tackle the 'gender discrimination' that took place in the armed forces. 

BIG: Supreme Court directs Centre to set up permanent commission for women in armed forces