AFT Orders Pension for Ex-IAF Wing Commander Namrita Chandi, Deeming 20 Years’ Service 15 Years After Retirement

The Armed Forces Tribunal’s Chandigarh Bench at Chandimandir has directed the Indian Air Force to grant former Wing Commander Namrita Chandi pension and retirement benefits on the basis that she completed 20 years of pensionable service. The order follows a long-running dispute over her denial of Permanent Commission and modifies an earlier Tribunal judgment from 2015.

The Bench, comprising Justice Sudhir Mittal and Lieutenant General (Dr) Ranbir Singh (retd), held that Chandi, who served in the Air Force under the Short Service Commission (SSC), must be treated as having completed the prescribed 20 years of pensionable service. It directed that her pension begin from the day immediately after the date on which she completed 20 years of service, along with the consequential retirement benefits applicable to an officer with that qualifying service.

In reaching its decision, the Tribunal relied on Supreme Court rulings concerning women SSC officers who had sought Permanent Commission. It considered the legal principles arising from cases including Lt Cdr Annie Nagaraja and others, as well as proceedings concerning women officers who were not given the opportunity to be considered for Permanent Commission.

The AFT noted that the Supreme Court had held that women SSC officers who opted for Permanent Commission but were instead given extensions were entitled to consideration on a par with male SSC officers. The benefit, it said, covered women who had approached the Supreme Court and retired while those proceedings were under way.

The directions in the Annie Nagaraja case also addressed women officers who had been denied consideration for Permanent Commission and were no longer serving. Those officers were to be deemed to have completed the required substantive pensionable service and were entitled to pensionary benefits. Other consequential benefits were governed by the Supreme Court’s directions.

Chandi’s service and legal challenge

Chandi received a Short Service Commission in the Indian Air Force in 1996, initially for 10 years. Before that period ended, she applied for Permanent Commission. The Air Force instead granted her a five-year extension and later rejected her request, citing the absence at the time of a provision for granting Permanent Commission to SSC officers in the flying branch.

She retired in 2011 and challenged the decision through a writ petition in the Delhi High Court. The case was transferred to the Armed Forces Tribunal’s Principal Bench in 2014. In 2015, the AFT allowed her petition along with a batch of similar cases, relying on the Delhi High Court’s judgment in Babita Puniya and Others versus The Secretary and Another.

The defence authorities challenged the Tribunal’s decision in the Supreme Court. The appeal was dismissed in 2019, upholding the legal position on which relief for women SSC officers had been based.

After the Supreme Court proceedings, Chandi sent a legal notice seeking implementation of the directions. The Air Force responded that the competent authority had decided to consider her suitability for Permanent Commission. An independent board of officers was formed, and she was asked to report for a medical examination on July 22, 2020, if she was willing to accept the offer.

Chandi objected to being assessed under the parameters set out in the 2004 and 2010 policies, particularly because she had been out of service for nine years. The latest AFT proceedings therefore concerned the relief available to her following the earlier litigation and the Supreme Court’s directions.

Her counsel, Sandeep Bansal, argued that she was entitled to pension calculated on 20 years of service, together with the retirement benefits available to officers who had completed the required pensionable tenure. He asked the Tribunal to modify its 2015 judgment, relying on Supreme Court rulings on women officers in the Army and Navy, including Babita Puniya and Annie Nagaraja.

The Tribunal declined the Union of India’s request for an adjournment because the paper book was unavailable. It observed that the Supreme Court’s orders were well known and that the legal position established by those judgments left no ambiguity about the entitlement of eligible women SSC officers.

Under the latest order, Chandi is to receive pension from the day after she completed 20 years of service, as well as the applicable consequential retirement benefits. The ruling resolves the question of her pension entitlement after years of litigation over the denial of Permanent Commission.