Woman Challenges 90% Reservation In Army Dental Corps For Men

The Punjab and Haryana High Court seeks a response from the union government regarding the plea challenging the Indian Army’s decision to reserve 90 percent vacancies in the Army Dental Corps (ADC) for men.

The female petitioner in the case is Dr Satbir Kaur, a dental surgeon from Punjab. The applicant for Short Service Commission in the ADC approached the high court. Kaur pointed out that out of 30 total vacancies, the Army reserved 27 seats for men and 3 seats for women.

Woman Challenges Army Dental Corps Reservation

When applying for ADC, an applicant has to clear the National Eligibility and Entrance Test for Master’s in Dental Sciences (NEET-MDS). While male candidates with a NEET rank till 2,934 have been called for ADC interviews, female qualifiers till the rank of 235 only have been asked to attend the interviews.

The petitioner stated that in the ADC recruitment, which is permissible up to the age of 45 years was gender-neutral till last year. Kaur added that recruitment, where rules permit both men and women to join, cannot be encumbered with reservation for men, which is anyway not permitted under Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution.

The plea said, "It requires no legal exposition that such reservation for men for 27 seats out of the total 30 is not only illegal, against applicable instructions and public policy, but also directly in teeth of Articles of 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India".

A division bench of Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Jagmohan Bansal granted interim relief to the petitioner. The court directed that Kaur be interviewed provisionally and the results of the ADC recruitment will remain subject to the outcome of the petition.

Kaur pointed out that the Supreme Court’s recent judgements came down heavily on the defence services for violating gender parity based on stereotypical and regressive statements. The apex court then directed quality opportunities for employment in the defence services except for combat arms.

The petitioner also declared that while the government and political executive supported gender parity, the Army authorities violated the constitutional provisions and also the judgements of the Supreme Court.

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