On March 3, the Supreme Court (SC) of India refused a plea to reserve 50 per cent of seats for women in the National Defence Academy (NDA). The SC bench comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Aravind Kumar observed, “The petitioner did not obtain the requisite merit in the women category though in overall merit she would have more marks than some of the men candidates who would be admitted.”
The Court stated, “The larger issue is being examined by us already. The opening for women candidates has to occur over a period of time.” The Court continued, “However, it is not possible to immediately have 50% of the seats for women and this issue is already being examined by us in W.P.(c) No.1416/2020 to see how best the ultimate objective is achieved.”
The Court said, “We do believe that any one more petition to the list would not in any way assist this Court and thus though we have sympathy for the petitioner, in the present scenario it is not possible for us to give any relief. Learned counsel for the petitioner however submits that the listing of this petition with the aforementioned matter would only give an opportunity to the petitioner to assist the Court,” and listed the plea with Kush Kalra v. Union of India & Ors. [WP (C) 1416/2020].
In August 2021, the SC passed an interim order to allow women to appear for NDA’s recruitment examination in Kush Kalra v. Union of India & Ors. [WP (C) 1416/2020]. The SC bench rejected the Government of India’s argument that excluding women from the NDA is a ‘policy decision’. Justice Kaul stated, “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!”
The Kush Kalra case raised the issue of restriction on women from joining the NDA, contending that such a ban violates Articles 14, 15, 16 & 19 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner argued that the categorical exclusion of women from the NDA & Naval Academy Examination (NAE) is violative of fundamental rights and lacks constitutional justification as done based on sex.
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