Supreme Court seeks Central government response to plea challenging reservation for men in Judge Advocate General vacancies

The Supreme Court recently issued notice to the Central government on a plea challenging the reservation for male candidates in the recently-notified vacancies for Judge Advocate General (JAG) posts in the Indian Army [Arshnoor Kaur and anr vs Union of India and anr]..In an order passed on August 4, a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Pankaj Mithal also said the two of the notified vacancies shall not be filled in the interim. "Issue notice, returnable in four weeks. 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 order said.The matter will be heard again after 4 weeks. The plea filed by two lady JAG aspirants through advocate Mandeep Kalra said that the January 18 notification reserving six out of nine posts for male candidates, denies equal opportunity to women.The petitioners had secured the fourth and fifth rank among the women candidates, but were unable to secure their name in the merit list due to the quota for men, it was argued."The provision/ practice/ criterion of unequal sex-based vacancies vide the the above-mentioned notification, not only unabashedly violates the non-discrimination guarantee embodied in Article 14 and 15(1) of the Constitution, but it also perpetuates and aggravates the persisting attitude and policy of indirect discrimination, showing that the functioning of the Indian Army is rife with sex-based implicit biases," the petition said. .It was pointed out that for the ten JAG posts that will be vacant in April next year, the notification divides the posts for male and female candidates equally, unlike in the ongoing round.The practice of non-disclosure of marks at different stages of the selection process and shortlisting was also flagged."There exist myriad inconsistencies with the selection procedure, on the grounds that: first, it involves shortlisting of Applications on ‘undisclosed grounds’ and for which no merit list is declared publicly; and second, that the candidates failing the first stage (Stage I) are not apprised of either the grounds or the merit list justifying the rejection at Stage I ... such inconsistencies are liable to be quashed & set-aside in light of the Principles of Natural Justice, Equity & Good Conscience," it was submitted..Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioner, justified moving the top court directly as it has entertained other pleas regarding gender inequality in the armed forces.The Court agreed to examine the matter and issued notice to the Central government. .Along with Sankaranarayanan, advocates Jhanvi Dubey, Radhika Narula, Divya Singh Pundir, Suvangana Agarwal, Rishabh Lekhi, Tanya Singh, Devesh Mohan, Anushna Satapathy, Chitrangada Singh, and Anjali Goyal represented the petitioners..[Read order]