Observing that the judiciary has to be the “flag bearer” and march with the nation, the Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) over the treatment meted out to a woman, who was discharged as a short service commission officer in 2021, and ordered the maritime force to re-induct her.
Coming down hard on the ICG for resisting grant of permanent commission to women officers, a bench headed by Chief justice D Y Chandrahud referred to the top court’s verdicts on grant of permanent commission to women officers in the Army, Air Force and Navy and said that the discrimination has to end.
“We have to be the flag bearers and march with the nation. Earlier women could not join the bar, be fighter pilots,” said the bench, which also comprised justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, adding that resistance to the move to attain gender equality has to go.
“We have already given our judgments in matters related to Permanent Commission in the Army, Navy and the Air Force. The Indian Coast Guard unfortunately continues to remain an outlier… Look at the resistance for a woman joining the Coast Guard,” the CJI observed.
The attorney general said he was not opposed to gender equality and was only referring to the facts of the case and the preparedness of the force to go about the changes.
“I am not resisting anything at all. I am not under resistance by them. But I am only looking at what’s called the orderly process structuring a certain institutional transition and how we are to manage that,” the top-most government law officer said.