I wholeheartedly welcome Honble Supreme Court’s judgement on giving the Women officers permanent commission in the… https://t.co/qjnZqDAsFQ — Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) 1581945382000

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court judgement granting permanent commissioning of women officers in the Army and allowing command positions to them.Around 1,500 women Army personnel are likely to benefit from the Supreme Court order."I wholeheartedly welcome the Supreme Court's judgement on giving the women officers permanent commission in the armed forces. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has supported the idea of permanent commission for women and announced the change in policy in his Independence Day speech in 2018," Singh tweeted.The apex court directed that within three months all serving SSC women officers have to be considered for Permanent Commissions (PCs) irrespective of them having crossed 14 years or, as the case may be, 20 years of service.Singh also said that a "historic decision" to allow women in field operations was taken earlier during the previous NDA regime when it was announced that women will be inducted into the military police of the Army."The recruitment process has started in 2019. The plan was to recruit women in roles ranging from probing crime cases to assisting the army in field operations wherever required," Singh said.He said there have been instances where certain women officers have been in the job for nearly twenty years, while short service commission term terminates in 14 years."In 2019, the defence ministry granted a permanent commission to women in all 10 branches of the Indian Army, including Signal Corps, intelligence, aviation, engineering, service corps and ordinance corps," added Rajnath Singh.He said before 2016, women made up just 2.5 per cent of India's armed forces, working in mainly non-combat roles."As of January 2019, 3.89 per cent of the army officers comprised women, while 6.7 per cent of the navy and 13.28 per cent of the air force personnel respectively were women as of June 2019," Singh said.Officials said the government is likely to come out with a comprehensive policy on permanent commissioning of women in the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force.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.The Army offers permanent commission to women officers in two branches judge advocate general (JAG) and education.Both the Navy and the IAF recruit women pilots under SSC.The Army recruits women officers under SSC for streams like air defence, engineering, signals and services.Under SSC, officers are allowed tenures ranging from five to 14 years of services. Permanent commission allows them to serve till the age of retirement.