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HomeIndiaGovernanceDenied promotions, 150 women army officers set to get service benefits

Denied promotions, 150 women army officers set to get service benefits

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Defence ministry withdrawing cases filed in top court; to bring in parity in rank, pension and other benefits for Short Service Commission officers.

New Delhi: Agreeing to reduce litigation in the government, the defence ministry is withdrawing cases filed in the Supreme Court to deny promotions and service benefits to at least 150 women officers in the Army.

Sources told ThePrint that the ministry will bring in parity in rank, pension and other benefits for Short Service Commission (SSC) officers appointed before 2006 on par with those commissioned thereafter.

The defence ministry had written to the law ministry to withdraw the appeals it had filed in the Supreme Court in 2016.

It will now formally withdraw appeals it had filed challenging a 2013 decision of the Armed Forces Tribunal that ruled that SSC officers commissioned before 2006 must be treated on par with those commissioned after 2006.

In its letter, the ministry said that the appeals “may be immediately withdrawn since the anomaly is due to a self-created negative interpretation even when the scheme had been approved for all officers by the cabinet without exception and then promulgated by the MoD”.

The sources said that the although previous defence minister Manohar Parrikar had agreed in principle to withdraw the appeals, the final call was taken by his successor Nirmala Sitharaman only last week.

The ministry said that the decision was taken based on an expert
committee report of 2015 that had recommended minimising litigation that the ministry is involved in.

The report severely criticised the ministry’s decision to challenge the tribunal’s ruling, saying that the “litigation seems more of a prestige issue and serves no purpose”.

“It is not understood as to why beneficial policies are viewed with a pessimistic eye so as to identify or even create prohibitory stipulations or even file appeals when the issue is suitably addressed by judicial intervention,” the expert committee said in its report.

In 2004, the government had accepted the promotions of Army officers at two, six and 13 years of service to the ranks of captain, major and lieutenant colonel respectively. Although the promotions were made applicable to all commissioned officers, the ministry withheld the benefits from SSC and women officers.

However, when service conditions for short service scheme was changed in 2006 from the 5+5+4 years system to a 10+4 years system, the benefit was extended only to those officers who opted for the new scheme.

The women officers denied promotions claimed that this resulted in a sharp disparity where senior officers were retired with lower ranks while their juniors were reaching ranks of Lt.Col.

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