Averring gender discrimination, woman aspirants seek equal number of vacancies as males for short service commission in Army

Vijay Mohan

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Chandigarh, February 20

Averring gender discrimination in the allotment of vacancies at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), several woman aspirants for short service commission in the Army have sought judicial intervention for an equal number vacancies for male as well as female candidates and a change in selection procedures that gives fair opportunity to meet the legitimate expectations of the large number of the women applicants.

In a joint petition filed before the Delhi High Court, they have contended that they had cleared the interview as well as medical examination and their names are mentioned in the merit list to join the OTA for pre-commission training, but they have not been issued call letters.

Their overall score in the selection process was higher than that of some of their male counterparts who have since been issued the call letters and have already joined the OTA, Chennai, they claimed.

Taking up their petition, a Division Bench comprising Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice Saurabh Banerjee have sought a response from the Ministry of Defence and Army Headquarters when the matters come up for the next hearing on April 29.

According to the petition, the situation has arisen primarily due to gender discrimination perpetuated by the respondents through a skewed ratio of allotment of vacancies for male and female candidates.

The number of vacancies for males is five to six times higher than the number of vacancies for females and separate merit lists are prepared in spite of a similar selection procedure of written test and service selection board interview process and similar exhaustive medical examination.

“In fact, between 2019 and 2023, the vacancies assigned for men were 225 and for women only 25 for each batch. However, the vacancies actually utilised were far less, just 16 or 17 vacancies, than the vacancies actually assigned for each batch. This is beyond comprehension when viewed in light of the fact that there is a huge deficiency of about 12,000 army officers in the junior ranks and the purpose of devising the scheme of short service commission was primarily to cater for such deficiency,” Col Indra Sen Singh (retd), counsel for the petitioners said.

The petition avers discrimination in entry procedure in spite of having similar training of the same duration, same nature of work, equal pay scales, equal service conditions, common promotion exams, common career examinations and training courses and common selection boards for grant of permanent commission and higher promotions.

“However, due to gross discrimination between male and female candidates in violation of the fundamental rights of equality and equal opportunity of employment guaranteed under Article 14 read with Article 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have not been issued call letters for joining OTA,” Col Sen said.

The petitioners have sought removal of the gender discrimination and the disparity in the selection of women candidates as perceived by them along with directions to the respondents to issue call-letters to them.

They have also sought an equal number of vacancies for male candidates and female candidates and conducting the selection process for grant of short service commission (non-technical) to male and female candidates against a common pool of vacancies on the basis of a common merit list.