Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 22: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to keep the women aspirants for openings in armed forces waiting for one more year and asked the government to allow them to sit for the examinations for entry in the National Defence Academy to be held in November, this year.
The apex court in the process rejected the centre’s plea that it may be given some more time to prepare the “mechanism” for admitting women in the NDA for openings in the armed forces and allow women to sit for the NDA exams from the next year. The court instead pushed the armed forces to live up to its reputation as “the best response team we have” to stand up to an emergency, iron out creases and make history happen by allowing women to write the NDA examinations in November this year itself. The court said it did not want women to be denied their right. They should be able to sit for the exams in November this year.
A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul said it would be difficult to accept the prayer “in view of the aspirations of the candidates willing to take the exam.” The bench also comprising of Justice B R Gavai said the “Armed Forces have seen far emergent situations both at the border and in the country” and the court is “sure such training will come handy here.”
The Ministry of Defence represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati had urged the court to let the November 2021 exam go on as before, without women taking it. She said the military establishment would need at least six months to “prepare” for the start of the process for induction of women into the NDA. Ms. Bhati submitted that a study group had been formed to look into the infrastructure and course requirements for women cadets in the NDA. The centre in its affidavit on the issue had told the court that it expected the “mechanism” for the women to appear in the NDA examinations for inductions in the armed forces would be “ready by May, 2022.”
Responding to the statement, the court made it plain that though it was in favour of giving time to the study group, it did not want to delay women from taking the exam. “We do not accept this situation. The armed forces treat everything as an emergency. They are the best response team we have. They deal with far more difficult situations in the country’s borders, they can deal with this. Do not ask us to vacate our order [of August 18],” Justice Kaul addressed the MoD.
Senior advocate Chinmoy Pradip Sharma and advocate Mohit Paul, for petitioner Kush Kalra, had countered the MoD stand pointing out that if the NDA entrance exam was announced in May 2022, the actual exam would take place later in September. This would mean that the actual induction of women cadets into the prestigious military academy, the gateway to the three Services and presently a male bastion, would happen in 2023 — a delay of a whole year.
The Bench said it was time the armed forces buckle up and make “a beginning.” The court refused to vacate its order of August 18 that women would write the NDA entrance exam in 2021 itself. The exam is scheduled for November. Asking the government to work out something, Justice Kaul remarked: “What answer would we have for the students who are on the anvil of taking the exam? Don’t ask us to effectively vacate the order. You go on with the exercise. Let us see the result and see how many get it.”
The court said it understood that induction of women into the NDA was a “big step” for the armed forces, but “we believe the process of women taking the exam has to begin without delay”.
Justice Kaul said, “We will not allow anything which will whittle down the aspirations of women. We will only allow you [armed forces] enough time to smoothen the creases, but we will not allow you to set the clock back.”
The court asked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to not hold up the publication of a corrigendum in the NDA exam notification announcing that women candidates would be allowed to take it. “Don’t put the train in reverse gear,” Justice Kaul told the UPSC, represented by advocate Naresh Kaushik.
Kaushik said the UPSC was waiting for the Defence Department to specify the medical and fitness requirements for women candidates in order to issue the corrigendum.
The court asked the department to do the needful in this regard. It said the department should, however, be given the “leeway’ to set tentative parameters for women candidates as the study group was still examining the issue. It observed that the case would be kept pending. It wanted to see the outcome of the November exam, including how many women candidates would apply and clear it.
The court posted the case for hearing on a Tuesday in the third week of January.
The court added that it would keep the plea filed by Advocate Kush Kalra pending so that directions can be sought as situations arise. Kalra had sought the court’s intervention to allow eligible women candidates to appear for the NDA exams conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Though the Centre had initially termed it a matter of policy, the court refused to accept this and said the policy “is based on gender discrimination.” Subsequently, the government after discussions with service chiefs agreed to allow women candidates to sit for NDA but prayed for time till May 2022 so as to put the necessary arrangements in place.
In an affidavit filed in court, the Defence Ministry had pointed to the need to formulate medical standards for the new women candidates. It also said “while the education curriculum is well set, all the rest of aspects of the training are required to be formulated separately” and added that there is also the need to upgrade infrastructure depending on the intake strength of the women candidates depending on the operational, budgetary and administrative criteria.