SC frowns on 90% Army dental posts for men

Setting aside only 10% of vacancies for recruitment of women in the Army Dental Corps (ADC) “is like putting the clock in reverse direction”, the Supreme Court (SC) has said in biting observations directed at the armed forces.
At a hearing on April 11, the apex court said that prima facie, the stand of the Army to allow men up to the “rank of 2394” in a recruitment exam to participate and females “only up to rank of 235” was discriminatory.
Highly placed sources said the Centre had not passed any orders on such reservation for men in ADC, and the decision has been taken internally by the Armed Forces Medical Services head.
The SC has also observed that women candidates “10 times more meritorious” are being ignored, and that depriving women from competing with men fairly was against Article 15 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality.
The SC bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice Aravind Kumar made these observations while hearing a petition against an order of the Delhi high court vacating a “status quo” ordered earlier on ADC recruitment results. The HC was hearing the matter in the wake of a petition filed by Dr Gopika Nair from Coimbatore.
While directing the continuance of status quo initially, the SC has now also ordered that interviews of the left-out women candidates who had petitioned the HC be conducted.
The HC and SC pleas come close on the heels of the Punjab and Haryana high court taking cognisance of such gender discrimination in ADC. In the plea pending before the HC at Chandigarh, the petitioner, Dr Satbir Kaur, has alleged that out of 30 vacancies, the Army has reserved 27 for men.
The plea mentioned that recruitments to the ADC, permissible up to 45 years, were gender-neutral till the last batch, and that subsequent hirings tilted towards men were against the Constitution. After hearing that plea, the Punjab and Haryana HC had directed the authorities to allow the petitioner to provisionally appear for interview, subject to the outcome of the petition.