Case Title: Union of India & Ors. V. Lt Cdr Annie Nagaraja & Ors.
The Supreme Court ruled that serving female Short Service Commission Officers in the Indian Navy were entitled to Permanent Commission at par with their male colleagues, setting a historic precedent on gender equality.
The decision in the aforementioned case and linked issues was made by a division bench made up of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi. It should be mentioned that in the case of The Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya and others, the same court had rendered a decision in favour of extending the Permanent Commission for women in the Indian Army.
In the current case, the Supreme Court was considering appeals brought by the Union Ministry against a Delhi High Court decision that had granted women officers' requests for permanent commissions on September 4, 2015.
Rejecting the Union Government's petitions and maintaining the Delhi High Court's ruling, the Apex Court ruled that, after the legislative ban on women joining the Navy was repealed, both male and female officers must be treated equally when giving permanent commissions in the Indian Navy.
The Court dismissed the Center's concerns as "gender stereotypes" since they were based on the physiological characteristics of women. The Court also rejected the argument that female officers are not qualified to perform maritime tasks. The Court stated, "It is inconceivable to tolerate a contention that women cannot sail alongside men sailors."
The Centre was told to put the orders into effect within three months. Applications from service officers for permanent commissions were to be taken into consideration in case of any openings.
The officers complained that despite serving for 14 years as Short Service Commission Officers, they were not given Permanent Commissions and were instead let off from their positions.
Women were not commissioned in the Navy until the 9th of October of 1991 when the enabling clause under Section 9(2) of the Navy Act was used for the first time to establish that women would also be eligible for appointment as officers in the Indian Navy. However, the induction of women was restricted to the fields of education, law, logistics, and ATC. The Ministry also said at the time that in 1997, official policy directives on permanent commission for women will be established. But these regulations were not established until 2008.
For the first time, the Ministry decided to give SSC women officers in all three Forces permanent commissions on September 26, 2008. However, this offer was limited to a few categories and was only intended to be used in the future. This regulation limited women officers who were inducted after January 2009 to the fields of education, law, and naval architecture, and even then, only those officers were eligible for permanent commission. The logistics and ATC cadres, which were made available to women for SSC in 1991, were not included.
The officers contested this mainly for two reasons: first, it was prospective in character, delivering no benefits to those who had already served for 14 years; and second, their cadres were not included in PC. They emphasised that neither a restriction on gender nor a restriction on category applies to the issuance of a permanent commission under Regulation 203 of Chapter IX of the Indian Navy Act, 1957.
A division bench in the Delhi High Court made up of Justices Kailash Gambhir and Najmi Wazri ruled that it was discriminatory to deny PC to female SSC officers in the ATC and Logistics cadres.
"We fail to comprehend that when these petitioners along with the male officers had undertaken the same kind of training but nevertheless were denied permanent commission although the men were granted the permanent commission with no special merit except for the fact that they belong to the male sex. If this does not tantamount to gender discrimination, then what else does?" the High Court had observed, while ordering that PC should be offered to the petitioners.