Keypoints:
- Bench noted that the structure of our society is created by males for males where talk of equality is a farce.
- Directing to the Centre, the apex court was considering to grant permanent commission (PC) to women army officers.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court said that “the structures of our society has been created by males for males”, and “equality will be farce.” This will happen if change does not occur and women get equal opportunity.
Directing to the Centre, the Apex court was considering to grant permanent commission (PC) to women army officers within a month and to allow PC within 2 months only after following due process.
Last year in February, a landmark verdict was made where the top court had directed that women officers in the Army be granted permanent commission at par with their male counterparts.
Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah, in a 137-page judgment studded with analysis of various kinds of discrimination faced by women said that,”The evaluation criteria set by the Army constituted systemic discrimination against the petitioners.”
“This disproportionate impact is attributable to the structural discrimination against women, by dint of which the facially neutral criteria of selective ACR evaluation and fulfilling the medical criteria to be in Shape-1 at a belated stage to secure PC disproportionately impacts them vis-a-vis their male counterparts,”said Justice Chandrachud while speaking about the pattern of evaluation deployed by the Army to implement the decision in Babita Puniya (February 17, 2020) disproportionately affects women.
“The pattern of evaluation, by excluding subsequent achievements of the petitioners, and failing to account for the inherent patterns of discrimination that were produced as a consequence of casual grading and skewed incentive structures, has resulted in indirect and systemic discrimination. This discrimination has caused an economic and psychological harm and an affront to their dignity.”
“Accordingly, the Army authorities must remove the requirement of benchmarking women Short Service Commission officers (WSSCOs) with the last male officer who had received PC in their corresponding batches and all WSSCOs meeting the 60% cutoff must be granted PC. Additionally, the calculation of the cutoff at 60%, which must by Army orders and instructions be reviewed every two years, must be re-assessed to determine if the casual completion of their ACRs is disproportionately impacting the WSSCOs ability to qualify for PC even at that threshold,” the SC said.
“In light of the systemic discrimination that women have faced in the Army over a period of time, to call for the adoption of a pattern of evaluation that accounts and compensates for this harsh reality is not to ask for ‘special and unjustified treatment’. Rather, it is the only pathway for the attainment of substantive equality. To adopt a symmetrical concept of equality is to empty the anti-discrimination guarantee under Article 15 of all meaning,” Justice Chandrachud said.
