New Delhi, Aug. 20: A lieutenant colonel who displayed courage in the face of suicide attacks in Afghanistan and became the first woman army officer to be given a gallantry award has approached the Supreme Court with a plea to protect her job.

Lt Col Mitali Madhumita, 39, a short-service commissioned officer, is contesting her premature release and denial of permanent commission. The officer had been feted for risking her life to enter the Indian embassy in Kabul during a suicide attack six years ago and saving several lives.

Till 2010, women were taken in the army only as short commissioned officers - for five years. This could be extended to a maximum of 15 years, after which their services were terminated.

Later that year, Delhi High Court had quashed the system as unconstitutional and illegal, saying there could not be any gender discrimination when there was no such rule for male officers.

The defence ministry had appealed in the Supreme Court, where the Centre said during earlier hearings that permanent commission would be accorded to women in non-combat areas like the Army Education Corps and the Judge Advocate-General wing.

The Delhi-based Armed Forces Tribunal had in February this year ordered permanent status for Lt Col Madhumita, who was recruited in 2000 and is married. It had quashed a 2014 ministry decision that said she could not withdraw an earlier plea in which she had expressed unwillingness to take up permanent commission.

The tribunal said the lieutenant colonel had earlier expressed unwillingness as she was posted in Afghanistan and was facing acute matrimonial problems. It also noted that government policy permitted a change of mind in case of circumstances beyond one's control, and said commanders in the chain must clear such pleas on merit.

Lt Col Madhumita's commanders had recommended permanent commission. However, she alleged that instead of granting her the status, the ministry hurriedly moved the Supreme Court and obtained earlier this month a stay on the tribunal order without putting proper facts before the judges.

On the basis of the stay, the ministry issued an order on August 11 telling the officer that "the competent authority had approved her release with immediate effect", although she had a provisional extension till December 6, 2015. She was till recently posted at the headquarters of the 41 Infantry Brigade in Lucknow.

In her apex court petition, filed through counsel Aishwarya Bhati, Lt Col Madhumita said she was posted as the leader of the English Language Training Team - an army unit - in Kabul in March 2009. She returned to India in 2013.

In the four years in Afghanistan, she braved fidayeen (suicide) attacks, including the October 2009 strike on the Indian mission, she said in her plea.

During the attack, she entered the embassy premises and saved several lives, her petition said.

The plea added: "The applicant (Lt Col Madhumita) was financially put in a very embarrassing situation (by the government), having no money to support herself... thereby showing the worst kind of insensitivity towards the first woman officer to be conferred with the Sena Medal as an act of gallantry in the face of enemy in Afghanistan and which was appreciated by one and all around the globe."