Pushing for gender equality in the armed forces, the Delhi [Images] high court on Monday asked the central government to consider granting permanent commission to serving women officers and granted it six weeks' time to respond on the matter.

The high court's suggestion for extending the benefits of permanent commission to women serving officers followed the government's claim that a policy decision was taken in September 2008 to grant permanent commission to women officers who would be recruited in future but not to those who are serving at present.

Seeking more time, the government counsel told a division bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul that besides this, other prayers including absorbing them in other departments of the force and pension for the retired officers were also under consideration.

Following the high court's earlier direction to treat women officers at par with their male counterparts in the armed forces, the centre had taken a policy decision to grant permanent commission to those women officers who would be recruited in future in Judge Advocate General and education departments only.

It was decided that the benefits would not be extended to serving women officers.