Seema Chaudhary Permanent Commission: Supreme Court Faults Navy Board

The Supreme Court on Wednesday, 28 October, set aside the Navy Selection Board’s April 2024 decision to deny a permanent commission to Seema Chaudhary, a woman officer of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch, and told the board to reconsider her claim within six weeks. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana held that the board gave too little weight to her favourable annual confidential reports and too much to earlier non-recommendations, PTI reported.

Six Weeks for a Fresh Decision

The Navy board must now meet again and decide her case afresh. The court directed that her confidential reports from 14 July 2008 to 31 October 2014 be treated as containing positive recommendations for permanent commission. Blank recommendation columns in the 2008–2012 reports cannot be held against her, it said, because she received recommendations in 2013 and 2014.

The bench made clear it was not ordering a review of every report in her service record. The competent authorities will decide which reports to look at, within the court’s directions.

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What the Bench Found Wrong

The court pointed to two errors: the board did not account for the promotion grading she had obtained in most of her reports, and it leaned on earlier non-recommendations despite the overall favourable assessments. “Such non-recommendations cannot overshadow the overall assessment reflected in those reports,” CJI Surya Kant said.

This is not the first time the case has reached the court. A 2023 review judgment had asked the Navy to consider her claim on a “standalone” basis, uninfluenced by earlier rounds and the Armed Forces Tribunal’s observations. Her counsel argued the Navy did not comply, since the board again relied on past non-recommendations.

Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Navy, said authorities had considered her case independently under Regulation 203. He argued that five years of non-recommendations by senior officers could not be ignored, and that permanent commission is not automatic for a Short Service Commission officer who received extensions for good service.

Board Must Reconvene by Mid-December

Six weeks from the order falls in the second week of December. The Navy has not yet said publicly whether it will comply or seek further relief. For other Short Service Commission officers, the ruling is another instance of the court asking selection boards to read confidential reports as a whole, a line it has taken in earlier cases on women officers, including those covered in our report on women officers in the Army. More court coverage is on our Daily Updates page.

Source: Supreme Court judgment of 2024 in Cdr Seema Chaudhary v. Union of India (earlier ruling in the case). Also based on reporting by ETV Bharat (PTI) and LiveLaw.

Image: File photo of the Supreme Court / ETV Bharat.