Male Indian Air Force officers seek permanent commission

Thirteen male Indian air force (IAF) officers on Tuesday approached the Armed Force Tribunal seeking permanent commission as was granted to female officers appointed prior to 2006, following a Delhi high court order earlier this year.

The air force officers filed their petition through their counsel, Rekha Palli, stating that denying permanent commission to men by the air force is illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory, and is liable to be set aside.

Admitting the plea, a division bench of Justice AK Mathur and ML Naidu have issued notice to the Centre and sought its reply by December 7, the next date of hearing.

Citing the high court order of March, in which women officers were granted permanent commission, the petition states: “SSC [short service commission] officers commissioned prior to the change of policy in 2006 cannot be deprived of the opportunity to be considered for permanent commission.

“The change in policy that decided not to grant permanent commission to any of the SSC officers have been introduced only in November 2007, and cannot be applied retrospectively to them who were commissioned much prior to 2007,” the petition states.

Charging the IAF with discrimination, the petition states, “The petitioners have already put in 9-10 years of service are being denied the opportunity of grant of permanent commission on the ground that there is no requirement. But, on the other hand, 100 new and untrained officers are being commissioned every year, which is discriminatory in nature.”