Women Army officers win long battle, can get command posts Women officers broke an armour-plated ceiling on Monday when the Supreme Court ordered grant of permanent commission in 10 non-battlefield services and held them to be eligible to hold command posts. The government had a year ago granted PC to newly-recruited women officers in these services, but not those short service commission officers already in the force.

NEW DELHI: Moments after the Supreme Court announced permanent commission and command posting for women in the Army on Monday, Lt Col Seema Singh ’s phone rang. Her husband, who retired as a colonel from ordnance corps and is in Mumbai, was on the other line. “We have done it,” he said. And Singh broke into a smile.TOI met Singh, one of the petitioners in a decade-long legal battle demanding gender parity in the Army, as she walked out of court, flanked by Lt Col Sandhya Yadav , Lt Col Anjali Bisht and Lt Col Maninder Virdi . The women in uniform held hands and posed for cameras.The officers said their husbands were the first to call and congratulate them on their victory. Bisht’s husband Lt Col Manish Thapliyal had, in fact, stood beside her in the courtroom when the verdict was announced.“It’s a special moment for me,” said Bisht. “I’m the first woman working in Signal Corps at this rank after 23 years of service. It hasn’t been an easy journey but despite all my achievements, things didn’t feel complete...until today. Now men and women are on an equal footing,” added Bisht, who has represented Army in national level skiing and also served as instructor at Military College of Telecommunication , Mhow.Singh said she found the strength to fight the case with her family’s support. “At home, my brother and I were treated as equals. My father who was in the IAF ensured it. When my family has never treated me differently for being a woman, why should anybody else?” She said, “The Army wanted to leave us, but we didn’t want to leave it.”For Lt Col Sandhya Yadav, the verdict brought the same euphoria that her selection in the SSC in 1990s had. “When a handful of women started a legal battle for equal opportunity, we didn’t know who else would support us. But other women kept joining us. This has made our victory sweeter,” said Yadav.A total of 11 women had moved the Delhi high court in 2010 upon completion of their 14-year service under the Short Service Commission (SSC) seeking permanent commission. By the time the case drew to a close this year, there were 70 women petitioners. Lt Col Maninder Virdi isn’t surprised that many other women officers chose to join their struggle. “If we had the same opportunities available to us that the male officers did, we would have been at higher ranks. The thought was bound to resonate with a lot of us.”The officers also believe that a “progressive” verdict such as this will allow more women to join the Army. “I hope this victory will motivate more women to join the Army,” Bisht said. They said they were grateful to advocate Meenakshi Lekhi for fighting their case pro bono.