Govt issues order for permanent commission of women officers in Army

New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence has issued an order for grant of Permanent Commission to women officers in the Army.

In a landmark judgement, the apex court in February had directed that all serving women officers recruited under the Short Service Commission (SSC) scheme will have to be considered for Permanent Commission.

Army Spokesperson Col Aman Anand said the government order paved the way for empowering of women officers to shoulder "larger roles" in the Army.

"The order specifies grant of permanent commission to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers in all 10 streams of the Indian Army," he said.

Col Anand said the 10 streams where permanent commission of women officers are being made available include army air defence, signals, engineers, army aviation, electronics and mechanical engineers, army service corps and intelligence corps.

At present, the Army offers permanent commission to women officers in two branches - judge advocate general (JAG) and education.

"Their selection board will be scheduled as soon as all affected SSC women officers exercise their option and complete requisite documentation," the Army spokesperson said.

Under SSC, women officers are initially taken for a period of five years, which is extendable up to 14 years. Permanent commissioning will allow them to serve till the age of retirement.

The Army recruits women officers under SSC for streams like air defence, engineering, signals and services and they can serve up to a maximum of 14 years.

Last year, the defence ministry had taken an in-principle decision to allow permanent commissioning of women in streams like signals, engineering, army aviation, army air defence and electronics and mechanical.

It was decided that the SSC women officers will be considered for grant of permanent commission based on the availability of vacancies and subject to willingness, suitability, performance, medical fitness and competitive merit of the aspirants.

The three services have allowed permanent recruitment of women in select streams including medical, education, legal, signals, logistics and engineering.

The women officers recruited through the SSC in the IAF have the option of seeking permanent commission in all streams except the flying branch.

The Navy has allowed permanent commission of women in a host of departments such as logistics, naval designing, air traffic control, engineering and legal.