When SC praised Col Qureshi in verdict on permanent commission to women officers-OxBig News Network

The achievements of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who flanked Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri along with IAF Wing Commander Vyomika Singh during a press briefing on Operation Sindoor on Wednesday, were specifically acknowledged by the Supreme Court in its February 17, 2020, landmark verdict granting permanent commission to women officers in the Army.

“Lieutenant Colonel Sophia Qureshi (Army Signal Corps) is the first woman to lead an Indian Army contingent at a multi-national military exercise named Exercise Force 18, which is the largest ever foreign military exercise hosted by India. She has served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Congo in 2006 where she, along with others, was in charge of monitoring ceasefires in those countries and aiding in humanitarian activities. Her job included ensuring peace in conflict affected areas,” a Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud (since retired) had said.

The top court had cited Colonel Qureshi as an example of what women can achieve in the armed forces in 2020, more than five years before she famously addressed the press briefing on Operation Sindoor along with Wing Commander Singh. Born in Gujarat’s Vadodara, Qureshi graduated with a Master’s in biochemistry from the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in 1997.

An officer in the critical Corps of Signals, in the past, she had been picked for the role of a military observer in Congo in 2006, besides being part of flood-relief operations in the Northeast. She broke the glass ceiling when in 2016, she became the first woman officer to lead its contingent at the multi-national field training exercise, Exercise Force 18, hosted by India for interoperability in sustaining peace among the ASEAN nations.

Allowing permanent commission to women officers in the Army, it said an absolute prohibition of women short service commission officers to obtain anything but staff appointments evidently did not fulfil the purpose of granting permanent commission as a means of career advancement in the Army. The court said the counter affidavit contained a detailed elaboration of the service rendered by women short service commission officers to the cause of the nation, working shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts.

“Yet, that role is sought to be diluted by the repeated pleas made before this court that women, by the nature of their biological composition and social milieu, have a less important role to play than their male counterparts,” the top court had said.

“Such a line of submission is disturbing as it ignores the solemn constitutional values which every institution in the nation is bound to uphold and facilitate. Women officers of the Indian Army have brought laurels to the force,” it had said.