Army begins process of granting permanent commission to women officers, application invited by Aug 31
The defence ministry had issued a formal sanction letter for granting permanent commission to women officers in Indian Army on July 23, thus paving the way for “empowering women officers to shoulder larger roles in the organisation”.
The Indian Army on Tuesday began the process of granting permanent commission to women officers, about two weeks after the government issued a formal sanction for it.
“Consequent to the receipt of formal Government Sanction Letter for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in Indian Army, the Army HQ is in process of convening a Special Number 5 Selection Board for screening women officers for grant of PC,” news agency ANI quoted an army spokesperson as saying.
As part of the process, the army has issued detailed administrative instructions to all affected women officers giving out guidelines for submission of applications for consideration of the board.
Women officers who joined Army through Women Special Entry Scheme and Short Service Commission Women are eligible for permanent commission. These candidates have been asked to submit their application forms, option certificate and other documents to Army Headquarters by August 31, 2020, the spokesperson added.
In a landmark judgement in February this year, the Supreme Court had ruled that women should be considered for command roles and were entitled to permanent commission. The apex court asked the government to give them PC within three months.
The Centre had then filed an application in July before the SC seeking extension of the deadline by another six months citing the Covid-19 pandemic. But it was given a one-month extension to implement the order.
The defence ministry then issued a formal sanction letter on July 23, thus paving the way for “empowering women officers to shoulder larger roles in the organisation”.
A statement had said “the army is committed to providing equal opportunities to all personnel including women officers to serve the country.”
The defence ministry order specified grant of Permanent Commission to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers in all the ten streams of the Indian Army including Army Air Defence (AAD), Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), and Intelligence Corps in addition to the existing streams of Judge and Advocate General (JAG) and Army Educational Corps (AEC).
