New Delhi, 24 March (H.S.):

In a landmark ruling Tuesday a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Suryakant extended major relief to women Short Service Commission officers across the three armed forces granting them permanent commission eligibility and pension benefits deeming 20 years qualifying service.

The court directed arrears with effect from January 1 2025 for women discharged during litigation treating their service as complete for pension while ordering permanent commission for serving officers meeting 60 percent cut-off subject to clearance. For Navy it mandated one-time medical fitness based grants including post-2009 joiners and for Air Force barred service tenure from blocking deserving officers due to past denials.

Highlighting discriminatory evaluation systems with ACRs presuming short careers leading to casual grading and exclusions from courses the court struck down 500 annual permanent commission caps as arbitrary mandating merit-based future selections beyond limits in special cases.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar