The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to vacate its order allowing women candidates to appear for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy examinations this year (Kush Kalra v. Union of India).
The Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) had informed the Supreme Court that a notification allowing women candidates to take the entrance exam for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA) would be released for next year, in May 2022.
The Centre further stated that a study group has been constituted by the defence services comprising experts to expeditiously formulate curriculum for women cadets at the NDA and a Board of Officers has been convened to frame a futuristic proposal for training of women cadets at NDA, reports Bar and Bench.
The Court, however, stated that it cannot vacate its previous order of allowing women to take the exams for this year, since hope was already given to willing candidates.
“It would be difficult for us to accept the submissions of the Centre in view of the aspirations of the candidates willing to take the exam. Armed Forces has seen far emergent situations both at the border and in the country. We are sure such training will come handy here. We will thus not vacate the order passed by us. We will keep the plea pending here so that directions can be sought as situations arise,” ordered the top court.
The petition has been kept pending and will now be heard in January 2022 for further directions if needed.
The exam for this year will be conducted in mid-November and results will take about two months for being published.
The Court further stated that instead of allowing women to write the exams next year, the Centre should try to work out something for the women candidates.
“What answer would we have for the students who are on the anvil of taking the exam? Don’t ask us to effectively vacate the order. You go on with the exercise. Let us see the result and see how many women get in,” said the top court.
Senior Advocate Chinmoy Pradip Sharma along with Advocate-on-Record Mohit Paul and Advocate Sunaina Phul represented the petitioner.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the Centre.
Last month, the Supreme Court had passed an interim order allowing women candidates to appear for this year’s NDA exams that were held on September 5.
