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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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that no person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be regarded as a member of a Scheduled Caste.
A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and NV Anjaria, upholding an order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, said that a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste community loses his SC status immediately and completely upon conversion to another religion.
"No statutory benefit, protection or reservation or entitlement under the Constitution or enactment of Parliament or state legislature can be claimed by or extended to any person who, by operation of clause 3, is not deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste.
"This bar is absolute and admits no exception. A person can't simultaneously profess and practice a religion other than the one specified in clause 3 and claim membership of the Scheduled Caste," the bench said.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court on April 30, 2025, held that once an individual converts to Christianity and actively professes and practices the faith, he cannot be regarded as a member of the Scheduled Caste community.
The high court has held that the caste system is alien to Christianity and is consequently barred from invoking the provisions of the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
It quashed charges filed by a complainant who had converted to Christianity and had invoked the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in a criminal case.
Aggrieved by the order, the man, a pastor, moved the apex court challenging the high court decision.
The top court noted that the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, has made it clear that conversion to any religion not specified in Clause 3 of the 1950 order results in immediate loss of Schedule Caste status, regardless of birth, and this bar was "absolute".
"In the present case, it is not the case of the petitioner that he re-converted from Christianity to his original religion or has been accepted back into the folds of the Madiga community.
"On the contrary, the evidence establishes that the appellant continued to profess Christianity and has been functioning as a pastor for more than a decade, conducting regular Sunday prayers at the houses of the village," the court said.
The bench noted that at the time of the alleged incident, he was conducting prayer meetings at the house.
"These concurrent facts leave no room for doubt that he continued to remain a Christian on the date of the occurrence," the bench said on the facts of the case.
The pastor Chinthada Anand had filed a criminal case in 2021 against one Akkala Rami Reddy, invoking various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST Act, alleging that a person had assaulted him while he was performing pastoral duties and conducting Sunday prayers in a village in Andhra Pradesh.
He claimed that he was subjected to multiple assaults by Rami Reddy, and he and his family were given death threats and abused in the name of their caste.
#BREAKING No person who professes a religion other than Hinduims, Sikhism or Buddhism shall not be a member of Scheduled caste. Conversion to any other religion results in loss of Scheduled caste status : Supreme Court https://t.co/fcapZvxbmX
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) March 24, 2026
