Army Chief General M M Naravane. (File)
Welcoming the Supreme Court verdict on permanent commission for women in the Army and for them to be considered for command posting, Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane on Thursday said that it is a “very enabling judgment and gives us clarity”.
The verdict brings out a “sense of clarity and purpose to gainfully employ officers for better efficiency”, he said.
Calling the Army a “champion of gender equality”, Gen Naravane said: “Indian Army does not discriminate any soldier based on religion, caste, creed, or even gender. The outlook of Indian Army has been throughout like this; that is why we started inducting Women Officers as early as in 1993.”
On the process forward, he said the first task at hand is to comply with the apex court's order. For this, he said, letters will be sent to everyone to get their opinion on “whether they want to be considered for permanent commission”.
About the possible creation of an independent command for the entire border in Jammu and Kashmir and other theatre commands, Gen Naravane said it is “at very preliminary stages of discussion”, and is at the moment “very loud thinking…
