New Delhi : The Supreme
Court today put on hold the release of ten women naval officers, who are
seeking grant of permanent commission (PC), from the services as scheduled on
December 31 this year.
A vacation bench comprising
justices Indira Banerjee and Aniruddha Bose took note of the submissions of
senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the women naval officers, and
granted the interim relief.
In the proceedings conducted
through video conferencing, the bench said the Centre and the Chief of Naval
Staff can file their replies to the petitions of the women officers and fixed
their pleas for further hearing on January 19.
"We will direct that the
matter be listed on January 19 along with pending writ petitions. In the
meanwhile, there will be a stay on order of December 18 (on release/retirement
of women officers)," it said.
The bench said the interim order
would not result in any equity in favour of the officers.
Senior Advocate R Balasubramanian
appeared for the Centre in the matters.
The two separate petitions have
been filed by ten women Short Service Commission (SSC) officers including Annie
Nagaraja and CDR Vijayeta seeking grant of permanent commission in the Indian
Navy.
They were to be released from
services on December 31.
Earlier, the top court, in a
landmark verdict on March 17 this year, had asked the Centre and the Navy to
grant permanent commission to Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers in
the Indian Navy and had asked them to complete the modalities within three
months.
Later, it extended till December
31 the deadline for implementation of its judgement on grant of PC to women SSC
officers in Navy after the Centre had moved the plea in June for extending the
deadline by six months citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to this, the top court, on
February 17, had granted the same relief of permanent commission to Short
Service Commission women officers in Army saying that women and men officers
should be treated equally.
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