Top Gunners aim at army’s few good women

14 women officers with the Indian Army's Judge Advocate General (JAG) will be replaced with less skilled personnel from infantry. The JAGs are fighting for a permanent commission

Top Gunners aim at army's few good women

14 women officers with the Indian Army's Judge Advocate General (JAG) will be replaced with less skilled personnel from infantry. The JAGs are fighting for a permanent commission

Their skill with howitzers is legendary but does it qualify them to don the black robes in a court room?

This is the question that 14 women officers with the Indian Army's Judge Advocate General (JAG) are asking at the move to replace them with officers drawn from other branches, including infantry, having a law degree.

For the women officers who are fighting a legal battle for a permanent commission in the Army, the move comes as insult to injury. Even after putting in 14 years, they have been asked to retire without a permanent
commission. The Defence Ministry has refused to extend its recent offer of giving permanent commission to women officers to these serving officials.

To fill in the gap Army is bringing in LLB graduates from other streams of the armed forces. Even though these officers lack proper training to deal with cases related to JAG, the army is in no mood to relent to the demands of the women officers.

"These women officers had joined the JAG cadre and in the last 14 years have lived up to the standards of the Indian Army. Though a green signal for their permanent cadre has been given by the Army, these officers will not be able to avail the benefit as their case is sub judice," said a senior army officer, wishing anonymity.

Suffering from an acute shortage of trained officers, the defence forces in various branches are forced to fill in the gap by bringing in less trained men in their specialized cadres. Judge Advocate General is one such branch in the army, whose strength has dropped to almost half, past many years.

According to sources, in the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel itself, there is a shortage of 48 officers against the sanctioned strength of 91 officers. Out of the available strength, there are around 15 women officers in JAG under SSC. About 30 to 40 per cent of the seats in JAG are filled by the officers who are either commissioned in infantry or in other branches of the Army, they added.

"These officers acquired their LLB degree during service only and do not have any hands-on experience in the legal matters," added the officer.

Battle gear
The women officers have filed petitions before the Delhi High Court seeking permanent commission. Though the government has given in-principle approval to permanent commission to women in the Judge Advocate General and Education Corps, it has refused to extend the benefit to the serving officers.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels