NEW DELHI: When women officers can fly Rafales and can be a part of UN peacekeeping missions in combat zones like Syria, Lebanon and Israel, then why can’t they be deployed in counter-insurgency and counter-terror forces or get attached to infantry/artillery units in times of emergency, the Supreme Court asked on Monday while ruling that recruitment in streams where women are allowed must be merit-based and gender-neutral with no restriction on entry of women candidates.A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan found fault in Army’s policy of preparing separate merit lists for male and female candidates to recruit three female and six male candidates for Short Service Commission course for law graduates for Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch and said it was discriminatory as it put restrictions on female candidates. It said the practice of fixing a ceiling on recruitment of female candidates has the effect of perpetuating the status quo, which has been historically discriminatory to women candidates. There are 10 streams in the Army where women are eligible for appointment as SSC officers.“This court is of the view that once the Army permits women officers to join any corps, department or branch forming a part of the regular Army, it cannot impose an additional restriction with regard to ‘extent of induction’ of women officers in the said corps, department or branch – as Section 12 of the Army Act, 1950, does not empower it to do so,” Justice Manmohan, who wrote the verdict for the bench, said. The court allowed the plea of a woman who contended that she scored more than her male counterparts but was denied because only three females were to be selected.The Centre and the Army took the defence that JAG officers are primarily combatant personnel and that was the reason for restriction on entry of females but the court refused to accept the plea and said if it was accepted, then it would lead to exclusion of women officers from all streams of the Army.“It does not stand to reason that when women officers like Captain Ojaswita Shree of the elite Parachute Air Defence Unit, Major Dwipannita Kalita of highly specialised airborne medical unit of the Indian Army and Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh (pilot of Rafale jet) of the Indian Air Force can operate behind enemy lines with all expected risks, why women officers in times of emergency cannot be deployed for counter-insurgency or in counter-terror forces or attached to infantry/artillery units. This is supported by the fact that the Indian Army entrusts women officers with complex tasks, such as transporting convoys of 30 to 50 vehicles through militant-prone areas in Leh, Srinagar, Udhampur and the north-east,” the bench said.
