Women candidates can be inducted against unfilled vacancies for males, rules High Court

The Delhi High Court has ruled that additional women officer candidates can be inducted against leftover vacancies for male candidates even if the quota earmarked for women has been filled up.

A Division Bench comprising Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla said in their order of September 16 that no restriction on the extent of induction of women candidates can be laid.

Several women candidates, who had applied for Short Service Commission, contended that 169 vacancies had been allocated for male candidates and only 16 vacancies were earmarked for women.

Out of 169 vacancies for males, the final selection was made only for 107 vacancies and 62 vacancies went unutilized. On the other hand, only 16 women candidates were issued call-up letters though 103 candidates were placed in the merit list.

“The benchmark for call-up letter to join pre-commission training for males was 180 marks, whereas the female candidates who had scored much more than the aforesaid benchmark were not issued the call-up letter and thus were deprived of their legitimate right and legitimate expectation to join the Army,” counsel for the candidates, Col Indra Sen Singh (retd) argued.

The petition also drew attention to a recent judgement by the Supreme Court in Arshnoor Kaur vs Union of India holding that in those branches of the Army in which women have already been permitted to join vide the Presidential Notification issued under Section 12 of the Army Act, 1950, no restriction as to the extent of induction can be placed through executive orders as has been done in the instant case.

In the matter of Arshnoor Kaur, six vacancies for the Judge Advocate General’s Department had been notified and three vacancies were notified for women. Two women candidates who were 4^th and 5^th in the merit list for women had averred that specification of a limited number of vacancies for women candidates was unconstitutional and since more than three vacancies for males were left unfilled, they should be appointed against them.

The High Court observed that the top court’s judgement in the case implies that In respect of corps, departments, or streams of the Army, which stand notified under Section 12 of the Army Act as streams in which women could also be recruited, the percentage of women could not be restricted, nor could reservation for male candidates be permitted, by way of an advertisement or executive instruction.

The High Court also observed that Section 12 of the Army Act does not permit specification of any extent to which women could be inducted into the notified streams, corps or branches.

“We, therefore, direct that the petitioners be considered against the 62 unfilled vacancies of men, as there could have been no limitation on the number of women who could be entitled to recruitment against the corps and services identified in Para 45 of Arshnoor Kaur,” the High Court’s Bench ruled.

“Needless to say, however, the petitioners would not be entitled for induction into any other corps or services, other than the corps or services, which are identified in Para 45 of the decision in Arshnoor Kaur,” the Bench added. There are 10 corps and branches in which women officers can be inducted.

“The directions imply that women candidates must be allowed to compete against all the available vacancies for a particular batch at par with their male counter-parts without any gender discrimination. This has ramifications for all subsequent selection processes,” Col Sen said.