Implement order on permanent commission to women instead of seeking clarifications, SC tells Centre
The court criticised the ‘fashion of filing miscellaneous applications’ once a judgement is delivered.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a miscellaneous application filed by the Centre seeking clarifications in a judgement directing the Army to grant permanent commission to women, Live Law reported.
A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah criticised the “fashion of filing miscellaneous applications” seeking clarification after a judgement is delivered. The court told the Centre that if it was unhappy with the verdict, then it should file a review petition.
“You implement the judgement as it stands,” Justice Chandrachud told Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh, representing the Centre. “This is an attempt on the part of your client to go around the judgement.”
He also added that the Union government should not be filing miscellaneous applications. “This is not the proper practice,” Justice Chandrachud said.
Permanent commission for women
In a landmark verdict in February last year, the Supreme Court had directed that women officers in the Army be granted permanent commission. The court had rejected the Centre’s stand of their physiological limitations as being based on “stereotypes” and “gender discrimination against women”.
The Army had constituted a special selection board in September 2020 to screen women officers. The results were declared a month later. After this, some women who were not granted a permanent commission had moved the Supreme Court.
In response to their petition, the Supreme Court had held that the evaluation criteria for granting permanent commission to women officers systematically discriminated against them. The court had also ordered a review of the method of evaluation for future batches.
The Supreme Court had questioned why the Army required women officers seeking permanent commission to have the same fitness standards at the age of 45 as those applied to 25-year-old male officers.
After the order, an Army selection board reconsidered the cases and granted permanent commission to 147 additional women. A total of 424 women have been granted permanent commission till now.