Supreme Court Warns Govt: Act On Coast Guard Women Posting Or We Will

On Monday, the Supreme Court told the Centre that it is no longer acceptable to deny a woman a permanent commission as a Coast Guard officer because the job is “functionally different” from those in the Indian Army and Indian Navy. The court also made it clear that it would step in if the government didn’t fix the problem.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud said, “If you don’t do it, we will do it,” while hearing a petition from Priyanka Tyagi, a Coast Guard navigator who was released in December 2018 after 14 years of service without being considered for a permanent commission (PC).

Attorney general (AG) R Venkataramani spoke for the Union government and said that the Center is willing to look into the issue again. In November of last year, a board was set up to look into “structural changes” in the force. “The Coast Guard works in a way that is different from the navy and the army.” Because internal changes need to be made, a board has been set up. “The matter is being looked into by the board,” the AG said.

Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra were also on the bench. They said, “All of this functionally different argument will not work in today’s times.” The matter was put off until Friday.

Tyagi worked there for 14 years and worked her way up from being an assistant commandant in 2009 to being a commandant (junior grade). The court looked at her case on February 19 and asked the Center for an answer. The Center said it was “patriarchal” that they didn’t want women to be short-service commission officers in the Coast Guard. “Those days are over when you said women couldn’t be in the Coast Guard. “If women can guard the borders, they can even guard the coasts,” and criticized the Center for not doing more to strengthen women.

In February 2020, the Supreme Court made a historic decision in the Babita Punia case that made it possible for women with short service commissions to be given permanent commissions in the Army and Air Force in non-combat roles on the same terms as men.

After this, the Army selection board’s results, which were made public on November 19, 2020, showed that out of 615 women SSCOs, only 422 were found to be fit based on their qualifications. Because of this, Army women SSCOs filed a second set of papers with the highest court. In the March 2021 case of Lt Col Nitisha v Union of India, the Army’s evaluation criteria were thrown out because they were unfair and built on gender stereotypes.

Help for a woman navy officer The Indian Navy was told to set up a selection board to take a “third look” at the petition by a woman JAG (judge advocate general) SSC officer and ex-Commodore Seema Chaudhary earlier in the day. This was done by a bench led by CJI Chandrachud using its extrajudicial powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. According to SSC rules, an officer has the right to be looked at twice, or “two looks.” Seema requested this multiple times but was turned down each time for a permanent commission.

She even lost her case in court before the Supreme Court on October 20, 2020, when the highest court agreed with the Indian Navy’s choice to not take her on. But the officer asked for a review, and it was heard in public on Monday by the Chief Justice of India and Justice Hima Kohli.

Senior attorney Devadatt Kamat and advocate Javedur Rehman said that the petitioner is the only officer who should be considered for PC among officers who were commissioned before 2008 and are subject to the policy from February 1999. It was claimed that the navy selection board looked at her inter-se merit with the 2011 and 2014 batches when she was turned down for PC twice. She based her decision on the Annie Nagaraja case decision made by the highest court in March 2020. This decision made it possible for navy women to be considered for permanent commission at the same level as male SSC officers.

Senior lawyer R Balasubramanian defended the navy and said that the law was followed because she had been considered twice for a permanent commission and turned down both times. He also said that she got her release letter in August 2020, which means it has been four years since she left the police force.

But the bench said, “We cannot give her a permanent commission.” They asked that a selection board be set up within two months. We will make sure she smiles as she leaves our court, though. All of them are soldiers who have served our country.