SC grants pensionary benefits to women officers denied permanent commission
New Delhi (PTI): In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that women Short Service Commission (SSC) officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who were denied Permanent Commission due to arbitrary assessment, are entitled to full pensionary benefits.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh held that the officers would be "deemed" to have completed the minimum qualifying service of 20 years required for a pension, even if they were released from service earlier.
The judgment came on a batch of petitions, including those filed by Wing Commander Sucheta Edan and others, challenging the denial of Permanent Commission (PC) based on policy changes in 2019 and previous Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) rulings.
Reading the operative parts of the judgment, the CJI said the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) for women officers were often graded "casually" under the assumption that they would not be eligible for career progression or PC.
“The ACRs were written with the presumption that they would not undergo career progression. This adversely affected their overall merit,” the CJI said.
The bench separately dealt with the denial of PC to SSC women officers of the Air Force, Navy and Army.
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Regarding the Air Force, the bench found that the "Service Length Criteria" and "Minimum Performance Criteria" introduced in 2019 were implemented in haste, denying officers a reasonable opportunity to meet them.
Using its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, which empowers the top court to pass any orders to do complete justice, the bench said, as a one-time measure, all SSC officers considered for PC in selection boards held in 2019, 2020, and 2021, including those released in 2021, will be deemed to have completed 20 years of qualifying service.
It said the pension will be fixed based on this 20-year deemed service, effective from November 1, 2025.
The court, however, declined to order reinstatement, citing "operational effectiveness", but said that this could not be a ground to deny financial benefits.
Dealing with issues pertaining to the Army and Navy, it found similar flaws in their assessment models and said the failure to disclose evaluation criteria adversely impacted these officers.
The court rejected the plea for notional time-scale promotions to the rank of Wing Commander for those not in active service.
The detailed judgement is awaited.
Earlier, the Centre had defended its policy, saying that the Army’s processes were gender-neutral and that "elimination is part of a policy to keep the forces young."
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3 officials of private banks arrested in Gujarat in Rs 2,500 crore cyber fraud; 20 held so far
Rajkot (PTI): Three officials of leading private banks were arrested for their alleged involvement in a Rs 2,500-crore cyber fraud racket in Gujarat's Rajkot district, bringing the number of those held so far in the case to 20, police said on Monday.
Those arrested were identified as Maulik Kamani, a personal manager at Yes Bank in Padadhari; Kalpesh Dangariya, a manager at Axis Bank in Jamnagar; and Anurag Baldha, a personal banker with HDFC Bank, Rajkot (Rural) Superintendent of Police Vijay Gurjar said.
Dangariya and Baldha were previously employed with Yes Bank, he added.
Kamani allegedly assisted the earlier arrested accused in opening and managing suspicious accounts. He also helped bypass banking alerts triggered by high-value transactions by submitting additional documentation to keep accounts active, the SP said.
Kamani was allegedly involved in cash withdrawals that were later routed through hawala channels (illegal money transfer system), supported by digital evidence recovered from his mobile device, he added.
Dangariya is accused of facilitating the opening of fraudulent accounts using fake or misrepresented identities, police said.
He also assisted in structuring documentation, including Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)-related papers, to prevent transactions from being flagged as suspicious, they said.
On the other hand, Baldha opened new accounts after verification and certification processes as part of the racket, Gurjar informed.
All the three accused are in police custody, while others are in jail under judicial remand, SP said.
So far, police have identified 85 bank accounts linked to the racket with 535 complaints filed on the cyber crime portal.
The total transaction linked to the cyber fraud exceeds Rs 2,500 crore, police said.
The earlier fraud amount was pegged by police at Rs 1,500 crore.
