On Tuesday, the Indian Army started the process of granting permanent commission to women officers, about 2 weeks after the Govt issued a formal sanction for it.

“Consequent to the receipt of formal Government Sanction Letter for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in Indian Army, the Army HQ is in process of convening a Special Number 5 Selection Board for screening women officers for grant of PC,” the news agency quoted an army spokesperson as saying.

As part of the process, the Army has issued detailed administrative instructions to all affected women officers giving out guidelines for submission of applications for consideration of the board. 

Women officers who joined the Army through Women Special Entry Scheme & Short Service Commission Women are eligible for permanent commission. These candidates have been asked to submit their application forms, option certificate & other documents to Army Headquarters by Aug 31, 2020, the spokesperson added.

In a landmark judgement in Feb 2020, the Apex Court had ruled that women should be considered for command roles & were entitled to permanent commission. The Supreme Court asked the Govt to give them PC within 3 months.

The Centre had then filed an application in July before the Top Court seeking an extension of the deadline by another 6 months citing the Coronavirus pandemic. But it was given a one-month extension to implement the order.

The defence ministry then issued a formal sanction letter on July 23, thus paving the way for “empowering women officers to shoulder larger roles in the organisation”.

"The army is committed to providing equal opportunities to all personnel including women officers to serve the country,” a statement stated.

The defence ministry order specified grant of Permanent Commission to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers in all the ten streams of the Indian Army including Army Air Defence (AAD), Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics & Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), & Intelligence Corps in addition to the existing streams of Judge & Advocate General (JAG) & Army Educational Corps (AEC). 

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