Ministry given notice over women officers’ plea alleging unfair treatment
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has warned the Ministry of Defence of contempt of court action for not considering their overall service profiles as ordered by it while granting them permanent commission in 2020, a special report by Satya Prakash in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says
The warning from the Supreme Court follows a plaint complaint alleging discrimination and unfair treatment in promotions of women Army officers.
“We are putting you on notice. If this is not rectified, we will have to come down heavily on you. Because it appears, ex facie, that there has been an attempt to go around our order… We will now take it very seriously. Tell the authority at the highest level. We want this to be rectified.
“Next day, if you tell us a different thing, we will have to issue a notice of contempt,” a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud told Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj on Wednesday.
“Now, we are giving you a last opportunity to set your house in order. Otherwise, we are going to haul you up,” said the Bench that also included Justice JB Pardiwala.
Asking the Ministry of Defence to file an affidavit on the issue in two weeks, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 21.
Natraj said that if possible, the Defence Ministry would definitely rectify it.
On behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel V Mohana said the top court’s decision in Lt Col Nitisha & Others vs Union of India & Others, spelling out the terms by which the overall service profile of women officers was required to be considered, has to be followed by the MoD.
Though the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) of the women officers based on their whole service profile were required to be considered, they were pegged at the ACRs for 2011, she complained.
Mohana alleged that fresh barriers such as refusal of the selection board to consider the latest ACRs of the women officers, insistence on filling vacancies on a pro rata basis, deliberately making woman officers, on getting promoted lead contingents that were normally led by officers junior in rank.
Stating that the male officers who underwent the promotion process were reviewed twice by different boards in one year, Mohana alleged that for women, the same board conducted the review process.
Mohana lamented that women officers had to keep coming back to the top court for total compliance, in both letter and spirit of the judgment that said women officers should be given a permanent commission and all other consequential benefits.
*********************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com