‘Need to keep morale high’: SC orders Centre not to relieve women SSC officers till Aug

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy told the court that if the SC hadn’t intervened in the past, Colonel Sophia Qureshi wouldn’t be briefing the nation

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to not release women short service commission (SSC) officers till their petitions are considered in August, noting that the country needs to stand with them at this time rather than make them run around courts.

The Supreme Court was hearing petitions filed by 59 women short service commission officers , who were denied permanent commission in December 2020 (PTI FILE PHOTO)

“This is the time when each one of us should be with them. We need to keep their morale high. They have better things to do than running around in courts,” a bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said.

“All of us feel very little before them. How much they are doing for us,” the bench added, referring to tensions along the India-Pakistan border after the armed forces carried out cross-border strikes on May 7 to dismantle terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The bench was hearing a batch of petitions filed by over 50 women SSC officers, who were aggrieved by the Indian Army’s decision to deny them permanent commission in December 2020. Since most of them were due to be released on completion of 14 years of service in the coming months, they had approached the top court seeking an order against their release after the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) dismissed their petitions in September 2024.

The court posted the matter for hearing on August 6 and told the Centre and the Army not to release them till the next date of hearing.

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati defended the army’s decision, asserting that the case of these officers was duly considered and the alleged grounds of discrimination was unfounded.

“The army has a steep pyramidical structure. The force needs more young officers,” Bhati said, prompting the bench to observe that the army should be a blend of both. “You need experienced officers as the young officers need to be trained and guided,” the court said.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, who appeared for the officers along with advocate Rakesh Kumar, said women officers such as Colonel Sofiya Qureshi – one of the two army officers who briefed the nation on Operation Sindoor and the subsequent action along the India-Pakistan border -- had to approach the top court for similar relief.

“Your lordships had intervened in the systemic discrimination (against women army officers). If your lordships hadn’t intervened, she (Colonel Sophia Qureshi) wouldn’t be briefing the nation,” Guruswamy said, referring to the top court’s 2020 verdict in Ministry of Defence v Babita Puniya case that granted granting equal opportunity to women SSC officers to get permanent commission on par with male officers.

The court agreed, stressing that the country had “excellent women officers”. The bench posted the cases after three months and assigned two dates – August 6 and 7 to hear all arguments of the petitioners and the army.

In all, about 59 officers have approached the top court alleging that the selection board for grant of permanent commission did not apply the same yardsticks as applicable to male officers. Of the present petitioners, four officers had been released at the end of their short service commission tenure.

While issuing notice on the first batch of appeals filed in August 2020 by 13 women SSC officers, the top court had said, “Any of the officers among the appellants who are presently in service will not be released till the appeal is taken up on the next date of listing.” Subsequently, other women officers also filed appeals that came to be heard with the pending batch of cases