The National Defense Academy (NDA), which was an all-male world, has finally been opened up to women, but it may not be feasible for a court to prescribe 50% reservation for women cadets in the elite institution, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday as it rejected the plea of a former NDA aspirant.
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul noted that his bench had already monitored the matter in another batch of petitions where a bundle of larger issues were considered.
A bench says included Justice Aravind Kumar “The opening of positions for female candidates must take place within a certain period of time. It is not possible to have 50% seats for women at once. All the relevant issues are being examined in another matter to see how the best can be achieved for the women candidates”.
Each course in NDA has 370 vacancies for three services. Of these, 208 cadets are assigned to the Indian Army, 120 to the Indian Air Force and 42 to the Indian Navy. Under the existing regime, the intake of female cadets at the Pune-based institute is limited to 19 per batch. The NDA exam is conducted twice a year, NDA-I in the first half of the year and NDA-II in the second.
Allotment of 50-50 quota for women
The court on Friday said that while it sympathized with the petitioner who claimed that she was not selected even though some of the lower ranked male candidates got through, the court could not pass any order on allotment of 50-50 quota for women at this time on NDA.
bench told advocate Jyotika Kalra, appearing for the petitioner aspirant “We can’t do it like this…how can we say that if we give them 50% of the seats?” It was literally a man’s world. From there, we got to a position where infrastructure and facilities were created for female candidates as well and some positions were created. There are several factors involved and we look at it in another matter. One fine day, we cannot say, make it 50-50”.
It is also a political issue, the bench said. “We are trying to get the best possible result in this matter, but we cannot say that they should now have 50:50 candidates. Things have to happen gradually and within a certain framework… Your goal may be noble, but we cannot do it this way,” he added.
To this, Kalra asked the court to allow her to assist the court in the main case, in which the court in August 2021 ordered that women can also sit for the NDA exam, saying that the policy that restricts their entry among the institution’s elite is based on “gender discrimination”.
The lawyer pointed out that she could bring to the court certain matters that may require settlement, with one of her demands being the direct publication of separate merit lists for men and women. The court accepted Kalra’s plea and allowed her to appear in another case filed by Kush Kalra through advocate Mohit Paul.
Breaking the glass ceiling after 65 years, the Supreme Court rejected the government’s argument in August 2021 that the NDA’s restriction on women’s training was a political decision when it issued an interim order to let them sit for the exam in November.
She also urged the government to “take a more constructive view of the matter”, prompting the Union government to return to court in September 2021 with a policy decision to open the doors of the NDA to female cadets as well.
As per the eligibility criteria, only male candidates who had passed class 12 or its equivalent and were in the age group of 16 and half and 19 years could apply at that time.
Those who clear the NDA exam are called for an interview by the Services Selection Board (SSB) and after the medical examination, the candidates are recruited in the NDA Army, Navy and Air Force and the INA Pre-Registration Course. training. The NDA was commissioned in 1955.
Written by: Vaishali Verma
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