Entry into JAG should be gender-neutral: Supreme Court of India

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India has quashed the policy of the Indian Army wherein more posts were reserved for men than women in the same recruitment process. The Court has held such a system to be unconstitutional and illegal and has held that induction in branches where both men and women are allowed to compete must be based only upon merit, irrespective of gender.

The system of reserving more vacancies for men as compared to women had led to women with much higher merit and scores being left out while less meritorious males were allowed to join JAG.

The judgment has been explained by LawBeat in the following terms:

The Supreme Court said restrictions on fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15 and 16 can only be imposed as provided in Section 12 of the Army Act, 1950. This section allows the government to specify branches in which women can serve but does not permit limiting their numbers once they are allowed in a branch. The court said the Army cannot reserve positions for men in the name of ‘extent of induction’ once women are permitted to join a branch. The bench rejected arguments based on physiological differences or potential combat deployment, noting that such reasoning had already been rejected in the Babita Puniya case. It said the JAG branch is part of the Combat Support Arms and Services, not Combat Arms, and women already serve in identical operational conditions as men. The court called the 50:50 male-female intake policy ‘facially neutral but discriminatory in practice’ because it prevents meritorious women from selection. It said indirect discrimination occurs when a neutral rule has a disproportionately negative effect on a group, here women candidates.