Supreme Court suspends High Court order on permanent commission for women in navy

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday suspended the operation of a Delhi High Court order directing the Navy to grrant permanent commission to all its women serving as short service commission officers.

However, an apex court bench of Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice V. Gopala Gowda said officers on whose plea the high court had on September 4 issued the order and who were in service in September 2008 when the Navy extended the permanent commission to its short service commission women officers will continue to serve with the same terms and conditions.

The apex court order came as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told it that the high court had erroneously held it as a case of gender discrimination, overlooking the fact that in the navy neither men nor women - who are commissioned under short service category - can be given permanent commission.

The court was told that Navy has permitted permanent commissioning for the women officers in the logistics, law and education branches. The court was told that the navy's women officers had moved the high court after its 2010 order in the Babita Punia case when it directed their permanent commissioning.

Women officer in navy are commissioned for short service with a maximum term of 14 years and that makes them ineligible for pension which requires a minimum 20 years of service. In fact no short service commission officer, male or female, is entitled for pension.