The Supreme Court recently heard one such case that had previously been heard by the Delhi High Court, and it made the appropriate observation that denying women the chance to compete with men on an equal footing was not only against Article 15 of the Constitution but also amounted to turning the clock backwards.
Source: Tribune India
This backward move was cleverly intended to be accomplished, betraying a perplexing bias, by calling male candidates with a NEET-MDS rank of up to 2,394 for the interview but not female candidates with a rank of only 235. According to the SC, this meant that women were being overlooked despite having ten times as much merit as men.
The SC first ordered the status quo to be maintained, but has now additionally mandated that the interviews of the women candidates who were overlooked and who had petitioned the HC take place. An earlier complaint against this discriminatory regulation was made to the Punjab and Haryana High Court by a dental surgeon from Punjab who had also filed for the ADC’s Short Service Commission. She emphasised that the Army had set aside 27 places for men out of the 30 openings, fulfilling its 90% requirement. The results of the ADC recruiting are still pending the resolution of the petition, as per the HC’s directive that she be given a provisional interview.
Source: Times of India
It is frustrating that women still have to turn to litigation to protect their rights, despite the government’s stated policy of gender parity in the tri-services, except in combat roles, and the apex court’s rebuke of the armed forces for justifying the denial of equal opportunities with stereotypes.
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