No women in Army?

THE Centre moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday against a March 12 Delhi High Court order to induct women as permanent commissioned officers in the army. The appeal was filed a day after the high court issued notice on a plea by some woman officers seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against army chief, General V. K. Singh, and others for not complying with the directions in the March 12 judgment.

All this time, the defence ministry had neither complied with the directions nor filed an appeal - till July 6 when the contempt petition came up for consideration before the high court. The army on Tuesday issued a formal press release stating that the high court had not issued any contempt notice but had only sought an explanation on the issue.

"In this matter, the ministry of defence has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court," the release said. The army refused to concede that it had failed to act within a timeframe and taken a long time to arrive at a decision.

A senior army officer at the defence ministry's South Block HQ said: "We had to send our response on the issue to the ministry. It was supposed to file the SLP. It took some time to consult some people, including the solicitor general." He said even if the aggrieved women army officers had not approached the high court with the contempt-of-court By Gyanant Singh in New Delhi Woman army officers are demanding permanent commission case, the SLP would have been filed around this time.

Sources said the Centre, in the SLP against the verdict, had sought an interim stay on the operation of the verdict till the matter was decided. On a batch of petitions by serving and retired women officers from the army and air force, the court had ruled they had the right to be treated on a par with male officers. Though the IAF had complied with the order, the army was resisting it.

The army, opposing the petitions, argued that if permanent commission was granted to women officers, there would be a danger of coming in contact with the enemy. The court brushed aside the argument, saying that the plea had no basis "since the women officers are not being inducted in combat".

Allowing the petition by the women, the court noted that they had served the armed forces well in the areas of operation they were recruited for, and had worked for 14-15 years. "They deserved better from the respondents," the court said, noting that a permanent commission carried with it certain privileges of rank, including pension. "We end this judgment with the hope that, with the expanding horizon of women participation in different walks of life, the respondents would be encouraged to have larger participation of women in more areas of operation, both for short service commission and permanent commission," Justices S. K. Kaul and M. C. Garg had said.

Source:http://in.news.yahoo.com/