Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on petition alleging gender discrimination in selection of Judge Advocate General in Army

New Delhi, Aug 7: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre on a petition alleging gender discrimination and reservation for male candidates in selection for the post of Judge Advocate General (JAG) in the Army.

Asking the Centre to respond to the petition filed by two women JAG aspirants in four weeks, a Bench led by Justice Hrishikesh Roy in its August 4 order said, “Considering the nature of the interim relief, we deem it appropriate to order to keep aside two of the notified vacancies, until the returnable date.” The petitioners have challenged the January 18, 2023 notification reserving six out of nine JAG posts for male candidates on the grounds that it denied equal opportunity to women aspirants. On behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan pointed out that the two petitioners had secured fourth and fifth ranks, respectively, but despite the better merit they were deprived of their entitlement for appointment as JAG officer in the Judge Advocate General Branch as six of the nine vacancies were earmarked for male candidates. He submitted that the top court had in the past entertained cases pertaining to gender discrimination in the Armed Forces in the matter of recruitment.

The petitioners sought to assail the notification, saying it not only unabashedly violated the non-discrimination guarantee embodied in Article 14 and 15(1) of the Constitution, but also perpetuated and aggravated the persisting attitude and policy of indirect discrimination, showing that the functioning of the Indian Army was rife with sex-based implicit biases. The recruitment is to be made through a common selection process and the selectees are required to undergo common training of 49 weeks at the Officers Training Academy. Yet double the number of vacancies are earmarked for male candidates.