The Supreme Court on Thursday rapped the defence establishment for denying women army officers permanent service commissions on a par with their male peers, observing this was “a reflection of the insidious patriarchal system”.

The bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, M.R. Shah and Sanjiv Khanna said the discrimination was continuing despite Delhi High Court in 2010 and the apex court in February 17 last year ordering gender parity in the matter.

Thursday’s ruling said all women officers who had fulfilled the cut-off grade of 60 per cent in the Special No. 5 Selection Board last September were entitled to permanent commissions, subject to their meeting the medical criteria and receiving disciplinary and vigilance clearance.

“It is not enough to proudly state that women officers are allowed to serve the nation in the armed forces, when the true picture of their service conditions tells a different story. A superficial sense of equality is not in the true spirit of the Constitution and attempts to make equality only symbolic,” Justice Chandrachud, who authored the judgment, wrote.

To bypass the 2010 and 2017 judgments, the defence ministry had adopted different selection criteria for men and women officers in the matter of granting permanent commissions, and formed different selection boards for them.

The court noted the selection boards had considered the annual confidential reports of the women officers for their 5th and 10th years instead of their latest ACRs, which was the norm adopted for male officers.

It directed that the method of evaluation of ACRs and the cut-off be reviewed for future batches.