However the appeal against the Delhi HC decision that had granted this benefit to women officers was filed in 2010,… https://t.co/VR1O2SXz5p — Navdeep Singh (@SinghNavdeep) 1581934708000

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the delay by successive governments at the Centre to grant permanent commission to women in the armed forces despite a 2010 Delhi high court verdict allowing it.Slamming the Centre, the top court said despite no stay on the 2010 Delhi high court verdict allowing grant of permanent commission to women officers, the government showed scant regard in implementing the directive in the past one decade.It said the engagement of women officers in the Army has been an evolutionary process and the Union of India should have acted in accordance with the Delhi high court judgment when there was no stay on it."There is no reason and justification for the Union of India not to act as per the Delhi high court verdict. On September 2, 2011, the Supreme Court had clarified this aspect and said there is no stay on the high court verdict. Despite that, scant regard has been paid to the verdict of Delhi high court and the order of Supreme Court as well," the bench said.Delhi high court had in March 2010 delivered a judgment upholding the right of women in the armed forces to gender equality.The Congress, which has criticised the present government for opposing the move, was in power at the Centre when the Delhi high court and later the Supreme Court passed the orders.It was the defence ministry under the then UPA government that had filed an appeal in the apex court against the Delhi high court ruling that favoured granting of permanent commission to women.While the top Congress leaders attacked the Union government after the SC order, defence minister Rajnath Singh said PM Narendra Modi had supported the idea of permanent commission for women and also announced change in its policy in his Independence Day speech in 2018."In 2019, the defence ministry granted permanent commission to women in all 10 branches of the Indian Army, including Signal Corps, intelligence, aviation, engineering, service corps and ordinance corps. The plan was to recruit women in roles ranging from probing crime cases to assisting the army in field operations wherever required. There have been instances where certain women officers have been in the job for nearly twenty years, while SSC term terminates in fourteen years," Rajnath Singh tweeted.Earlier, welcoming the SC verdict the Congress slammed Modi government for opposing the move."Congratulation to the women power of India. Despite stiff opposition from the Modi government, the Supreme Court approved the permanent commission of women in the army and observed that not giving rights to women shows the prejudice of the Center," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala tweeted.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that the BJP government disrespected Indian women by arguing in Supreme Court that women Army officers did not deserve command posts or permanent service because they were inferior to men.Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, also lauded the women for standing up and proving the government wrong."The government disrespected every Indian woman, by arguing in the SC that women Army officers didn't deserve command posts or permanent service because they were inferior to men," he said.