The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that revolution does not happen overnight and social revolution take time while hearing a plea pertaining to the induction of women in the National Defence Academy, which till November 2021 was an all-male bastion since its inception in 1955. The top court's observations came after an advocate sought quotas in other categories unrelated to gender.
"We want to progress and there is a lot of change in the mindset. When it comes to women's journeys the mindset is the biggest stumbling block starting from home," Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the defence ministry, said.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Kush Kalra who wanted to know how many women appeared for the NDA exams in November 2021 and how many were inducted into the academy thereafter. During the hearing, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul clarified that the idea was not to simply collate data but to see what is being done on the ground.
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Unlike Air Force, Women Play Restricted Role In Army, Navy: Centre
The Centre told the Supreme Court that inducting women in the National Defence Academy (NDA) was a major policy decision and it needed three months to study the impact and to work out a long-term strategy at the time of their deployment in the armed forces. Unlike the air force, where women were inducted in all arms which justified its commitment to induct six women per batch for the next five years, women played a more restricted role in the army and the navy.
Officers commissioned through NDA have a major component of Combat Arms and women officers (WOs) are not being inducted in combat arms, the defence ministry said. With respect to the navy, women were already coming in as short service commissioned officers, the centre said.
The Defence Ministry filed the affidavit after the Supreme Court in January 2022 had asked why the intake of women cadets was limited to 19 for each batch of the NDA. The Supreme Court in September 2021 had told the Centre that the induction of women in the NDA could not be postponed anymore. According to the Centre, "a total of 5,75,854 candidates applied for the exam and 3,57,197 candidates took the examination. A total of 8009 candidates, including 1002 women candidates passed the NDA written examination held during November 2021."
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Women Cadre to witness 5% growth after allotment of seats in NDA: Centre
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Defence Ministry, said each course at the NDA has 370 vacancies for the three Services of which 208 would get commissioned in the Army, 120 in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and 42 would get commissioned in the Navy.
The NDA examinations are conducted twice a year and presently only 19 women have been allowed per batch. Of these, "a considered decision was taken" to allocate seats for women in the army (10), navy (3) and the air force (6).
The Ajai Vikram Singh Committee recommends that the officer cadre is guided by 'regular cadre' to 'support cadre' ratio of 1:1. This ratio is to ensure that there is a younger profile and mobility in officers' cadre, borne out of its operational role and tasks in difficult field areas," the Centre said. Thus these numbers are based on sound rationale and current requirement of the armed forces, it added.
"With the present allotment of 10 women candidates per course in the NDA, that is 20 per year, the women cadre in these arms will witness a growth of 5 per cent from the existing 15 to 20 per cent", the affidavit said. Presently, women officers (including AMC and MNS, an auxiliary force) constitute 13.6% of the officers' cadre in the Indian defence forces.
The Centre argued that proportional strength of women cadets in the NDA is presently adequate considering the cadre structure and the "smooth assimilation of desired changes in the organisational environment".
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