Supreme Court Directs Indian Air Force To Consider Granting Pensionary Benefits To 32 Retired Women SSC Officers Deeming They Had Permanent Commission

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, in exercise of power under Article 142 of the Constitution, directed the Indian Air Force (IAF) to consider 32 Women Short Service Commission Officers (WSSCOs) in the present batch of appeals, who were released from service between December, 2006 and December, 2009 and were not considered for grant of Permanent Commission (PC), for grant of one-time pensionary benefits deeming that they have completed 20 years of service.The relief was granted following the logic applied by the Apex Court in its judgment in Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Poonia.A Bench comprising CJI, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice J.B. Pardiwala noted that the cases of the appellants shall be considered on the basis of the Human Resource policy of the IAF floated on 19.11.2010. It was made clear that the said officers shall not be entitled to any arrears of salary; only the arrears of pension shall be payable from the date on which the officers were deemed to have completed 20 years of service.In order to prevent deluge of petitions from being filed subsequent to the present order, the Bench made it clear that it is freezing the benefit granted and would not extend it to subsequent applicants/petitioners. To demonstrate the said intention, some of the impleadment petitions in the present appeals, which were filed after considerable delay from the dismissal of service were dismissed by the Bench.The appellants are women officers who had joined the IAF as Short Service Commission Officers between 1993 and 1998 and were released from service between December, 2006 and December, 2009. The appointment of these officers were in terms of the advertisement dated 25.11.1991, which contemplated that the officers would initially be granted Short Service Commission for a period of 5 years. Thereafter they would be considered for the grant of Permanent Commission (PC). However, after rendering 5 years of service, they were not considered for PC but their period of service was extended by 6 years. On 01.09.2004, the IAF floated a policy for the grant of PC to SSCOs with a rider stating that PC would not be offered to WSSCOs. Subsequently, on 25.05.2006, a policy was issued providing for a further extension with a rider that no PC would be offered to SSCOs. Finally, a policy was issued on 26.09.2008 which envisaged granting PC prospectively to women officers across the three Armed Forces, in select branches.In 2003, a PIL was instituted before the Delhi High Court by an Advocate, Ms. Babita Poonia who argued that not granting PC to women SSCOs was discrimination based on gender. In the proceedings, some WSSCOs belonging to the armed forces were impleaded as petitioners.The High Court granted relief, which came to be challenged before the Apex Court by the Ministry of Defence. However, the IAF did not prefer appeal and indicated that it would implement the decision in Babita Poonia passed by the High Court on 12.11.2010. 44 women SSCOs (23 had been released and 21 were then serving) were considered for the grant of PC. A total of 41 Women SSCOs were granted PC; 3 WSSCOs indicated their unwillingness.Pursuant to the High Court's decision in Babita Poonia, a batch of Writ Petitions reached the Delhi High Court seeking benefit of the judgment of the High Court for WSSCOs in the IAF. On 11.08.2011, the petitions were dismissed on the ground that the petitioners who had moved the court were not covered by the operative portion of the judgment in Babita Poonia, wherein it was held that women SSCOs who opted for PC, but were not granted and only allowed extension were entitled to PC at par with men SSCOs with all consequential benefits. PC was to be offered to them after completion of 5 years. As per Paragraph 61(3) of Babita Poonia's judgment the decision was applicable only to (a) women officers in service and to (b) those who had approached the High Court, though they had retired during the pendency of the petitions.Senior Advocate, Mr. Krishnan Venugopal, Mr. Huzefa Ahmadi and Ms. Meenakshi Arora and Advocate, Mr. Sudhanshu Pandey appeared for the appellants.The appellants argued that they were covered by Paragraph 61(4), which is an additional category over and above the category specified in Paragraph 61(3). They also contended they had legitimate expectation of being considered for grant of PC, as vouched by the advertisement dated 25.11.1991, pursuant to which they had joined the IAF. As per Babita Poonia, IAF was to consider the WSSCOs as per the Human Resource Policy dated 19.11.2010, but the appellants alleged that in reality that was not considered as per the said policy. In the alternative, the appellants argued that if the Court decides against reinstatement of the WSSCOs in the present batch of appeals, they should be granted pensionary benefits in terms of the decision of the Apex Court in Babita Poonia.Senior Advocate, R. Balasubramaniam appearing on behalf of IAF submitted...

Supreme Court Directs Indian Air Force To Consider Granting Pensionary Benefits To 32 Retired Women SSC Officers Deeming They Had Permanent Commission

Sohini Chowdhury

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