In an interesting turn of events, the Supreme court has directed the UPSC to allow women candidates to take the National defence academy exam scheduled to be conducted on 14th November, 2021 (earlier 5th September 2021).
While the Supreme Court has allowed women to take the admission exam to National Defence Academy (NDA) for now, the result would be subject to final adjudication of the petitions. This simply means that while a battle has been won, the larger war remains.
If the court finally decides in the favor of women, then it will mean two things:
- Women will be able to join the army with Permanent commission, at par with their male counterparts.
- The National Defence Academy will have to make significant changes to its infrastructure and training curriculum.
A division bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy has also directed the UPSC to take out a suitable corrigendum notification in view of the aforesaid order and “give due publicity so that intent of the order is translated into effect”.
Key Observations and Remarks by the court
Justice Kaul inquired from ASG Aishwarya Bhati, “Why are you continuing in this direction? Even after Justice Chandrachud’s judgment expanding the horizons and extending Permanent Commission in the Army to women? This is unfounded now! We are finding it absurd!”
“Will the Army only act when a judicial order is passed? Not otherwise?
We will do that if that is what you want! This has been my impression right from the High Court that till a judgment is passed, the Army doesn’t believe in doing anything voluntarily!”, continued the judge.
When the ASG sought to submit that women have been conferred PC in the Army, Justice Kaul commented, “No thanks to you! You kept on opposing it! And till orders were not passed, you didn’t do anything! The Navy and the Airforce are more forthcoming! The Army seems to have a bias to not implement!”
The ASG insisted that “such is not the case here” and that there are 3 modes of entry in the Army- NDA, Indian Military Academy (IMA) and Officers’ Training Academy (OTA)- and that women are permitted entry through OTA and IMA.
“Why? Why is co-education a problem?”, demanded the bench.
“The whole structure is such…this is a policy decision… it cannot be…”, the ASG sought to submit.
“The policy decision is based on gender discrimination. We direct the Respondents to take a constructive view of the matter in view of judgment of this court (in the PC matter)”, directed the bench.
“The endeavour is to persuade the army to do things itself! We would prefer if the Army did somethings itself, rather than us passing orders! But there was no success (in the PC matter) either in the HC or even in the SC till brother Justice Chandrachud made all the endeavours and passed all orders!”, said Justice Kaul.
“You must begin with some tokenism! Don’t compel judicial intervention all the time! We, as an institution, must confess that we may not understand all intricate, technical aspects of your structure, you are better-situated to appreciate that. But the broad principle of gender neutrality you must understand and adapt it in the backdrop of your peculiarities! Us passing blanket orders does not advance the cause!”, reflected Justice Kaul.
The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Chinmoy Pradip Sharma, along with Advocates Mohit Paul, Sunaina Phul and Irfan Hasieb.