The Centre on Wednesday denied any discrimination in granting permanent commission to Short Service Commission women Army officers when compared with their male counterparts while assuring the Supreme Court that all parameters were being duly followed.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh was hearing Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre and the Army.
She informed that the policy decision was being followed in grant of permanent commission.
Countering the arguments of the women officers, who moved court, Bhati said the annual confidential reports of those officers were actually gender neutral without an element of discrimination.
She said the methodology adopted is uniformly applicable to all officers.
"The aim of a confidential report is to have an objective assessment of an officer's competence, employability and potential as observed during the period covered by the report, primarily for organisational requirements," she said.
The bench told Bhati that women officers should not be made to think that they will not be considered for the permanent commission.
Bhati said it was an impression sought to be created but statistics since 1991 showed women officers were not discriminated against their male counterparts.
"In the Army, we have been following a very strict regime and there is no question of discrimination, as the selection board does not have the name of the officer before it. We are a professional army and do err sometime and AFT and courts have corrected us," she submitted.
Dealing with the arguments of non-consideration of "criteria appointment" or difficult area posting in the ACR of women officers, Bhati said such appointments were inconsequential and the officers were marked in average in the annual confidential reports.
Bhati said there are no marks or distinction of "criteria" or "non criteria" appointments for PC selection board and criteria appointments are specified for promotion to colonel, brigadier, major general and lieutenant general ranks.
She said below seven years of service, all confidential reports (CR) are non criteria reports and there are inherent checks available within the system for internal assessment of CRs to guard against subjectivity and bias assessment.
"There are several aspects in the ACR which are considered at the time of grant of permanent commission. Criteria appointment is not the sole criteria which is considered," Bhati said.
The women officers have contended that despite being posted in difficult areas and having participated in operations like Galwan, Balakot and the most recent Operation Sindoor, they were not considered for the PC.
A criteria appointment usually means an officer given command of a post in a difficult and hostile area or operation.
Bhati said the ratio of regular officers to the corresponding support staff through SSC against the desired ratio of 1:1.1 was very skewed.
"Over a period of time due to low subscription of Short Service Commission and low selection rates of in Service entries, the numbers in support cadre has decreased majorly and this deficiency had to be made up by recruiting more regular officers. However, organizational requirements and aspirations of officers dictate otherwise," the ASG submitted.
She said there was a shortage of good officers and pointed to the cap of 250 officers, which are being considered for grant of permanent commission depending on the merit a SSC batch officer gets.
"Ratio of 1:1.1 in officer cadre was mainly derived to lower the age profile of officers especially in the junior and middle leadership levels who are closely engaged in combat and operation in harsh/difficult operational environments,
she said.
Bhati pointed out total dearth in officers cadre stood at 8,443 (16.7 percent) with the majority of deficiency existing between Lt to Lt Col rank (9,607) and negligible deficiency existing in select ranks (77).
"As part of Support Cadre, In-Service Entries i.e PC (Special List) is authorised 2650 officers and Special Commissioned Officers is authorised 6000 officers and their current held strength is 754 and 950 respectively which amounts to 6946 officers deficiency within support cadre," she said.
The bench said the policy appeared to be flawed and pointed out a few SSC officers with 80 marks could be selected from a batch of "very bright" officers whereas from another batch, officers with a score of 65 could also be selected.
Bhati submissions would continue on Thursday.
On September 18, the SSC women Army officers informed the apex court that they were discriminated against in the grant of PC as compared to their male counterparts, despite having participated in crucial operations like in Galwan, Balakot and the recent Operation Sindoor.
The bench was informed by serving and discharged women officers that the Centre had repeatedly violated the directions issued by the apex court in 2020 and in 2021.
Some officers blamed the shortage of vacancies for the low intake of women officers for permanent commission while others pointed to discrimination in criteria appointments.
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