All recruitment to the Army Dental Corps (ADC) will be gender-neutral, with no separate quotas for males and females, the government has told the Supreme Court. The decision comes after the apex court criticised the recruitment process in April for only allocating 10% of vacancies to women, describing it as “putting the clock in reverse direction”.
Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj has informed a bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol on May 8 that the government has decided to do away with separate quotas for men and women and all future recruitment will be gender neutral.
“ASG further submits that hereinafter the selection would be made by applying gender-neutral formula. In that view of the matter, we find that the grievance of the petitioners stands satisfied. The special leave petition is disposed of accordingly,” the bench said, recording the submission of ASG and disposing of a plea filed by women dental doctors led by Gopika Nair, a Coimbatore resident.
The order was uploaded on the apex court’s website on Wednesday.
According to Additional Solicitor General in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions, the respondents interviewed the petitioners who had approached the Supreme Court, as well as those before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, and as per the result sheet, three female candidates made it to the list of 27 people.
“It is submitted that the said three female candidates would be appointed as per their position in the select list of first 27 candidates. It is submitted that insofar as three seats reserved for female category are concerned, they would be filled by the female candidates as per their merit after the first 27 candidates are appointed,” the court’s order, dated May 8, noted.
Nataraj also informed the court that since there are other vacancies, three more male candidates would also be accommodated.
SC Pulls Up Centre,
On April 11, the Supreme Court had expressed disapproval of the Centre’s decision to reserve only 10% of seats for women in the ADC. The court stated, “Prima facie, we find that depriving the highly meritorious female candidates from participating in the selection process is putting the clock in reverse direction.” The court added, “Prima facie, we are of the view that the stand of the respondent is violative of Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution of India. Whereas the male candidates who have rank till 2394 are permitted to participate in the selection process, insofar as the female candidates are concerned, the cut-off rank is 235.”
The government had previously justified the lack of female representation in ADC due to unique challenges within the defense forces.
“We find that an anomalous situation has arisen due to such a stand. Whereas a male candidate who is 10 times less meritorious than a female candidate is permitted to appear in the selection process, a female candidate who is 10 times meritorious than a male candidate is deprived from participating in the selection process,” the top court had said.
The court further added that the Centre’s stand was violative of equality before law. “Leave aside giving preferential treatment to the female as envisaged under Article 15 of the Constitution of India, the stand of the respondent-Union of India is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, inasmuch as it deprives a meritorious female to compete and permits much less meritorious male to participate in the selection process,” it said.
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition that challenged the Delhi High Court’s January 27, 2023 order to lift the status quo on the ADC recruitment results. The petitioners, including Nair, had approached the High Court in response to a July 2021 advertisement for the Army Dental Corps and had claimed it was unconstitutional and violated the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in the Babita Puniya case, which granted permanent commission to women in the defense forces. All the petitioners had taken part in the selection process.
(With inputs from PTI)
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