SC irked over non-grant of permanent commission to women in ICG, wants women treated fairly
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday came down hard on the Centre and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) for denial of permanent commission to its women officers and said the maritime force must come up with a policy which treats women "fairly".
The top court was hearing a plea filed by woman officer Priyanka Tyagi seeking grant of permanent commission to eligible women short service commission officers of the ICG.
"You speak of 'nari shakti' (woman power). Now show it here. You are in the deep end of the sea in this matter. You must come up with a policy which treats women fairly," the bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said.
The bench asked whether the Union was still adopting "a patriarchal approach" despite the judgements of the top court on grant of permanent commission to women officers in the three armed forces- Army, Air force and the Navy.
"Why are you being so patriarchal? You do not want to see the face of women in the coast guard?" the bench asked Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, who appeared for the ICG.
The bench said the petitioner was the only SSC woman officer who was opting for permanent commission and asked as to why her case was not considered.
"Now, the Coast Guard must come up with a policy," the bench said.
The bench asked the law officer to peruse the judgements granting permanent commission to women officers in the three defence services.
The also asked whether there was a provision for permanent commission for women in the Coast Guard.
On being told that 10 per cent permanent commission can be granted to women officers, the bench asked, "Why 10 per cent... are women lesser human beings?"
It asked why the ICG was not granting them permanent commission when the Indian Navy was.
It asked the Centre to come up with a gender-neutral policy on the issue.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
