The Supreme Court in an interim order on Wednesday allowed women to sit in the National Defence Academy (NDA) examination scheduled to be held on September 5 this year.
The SC passed the interim order in response to the petition filed by Kush Kalra that sought permission for women to appear in the National Defence Academy examination. The petition specifically talks about the admissions of women at the Pune-based National Defence Academy (NDA) and Kerala-based Indian Naval Academy (INA).
However, the apex court added that admissions will be subject to the final orders of the court.
The Supreme Court slammed Indian Army for its policy decision of not allowing women to take part in NDA and added that this policy is based on "gender discrimination'.
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Kush Kalra's public interest petition alleged that the Indian constitution's articles 14, 15, 16, and 19 have been violated by refusing eligible female candidates admission to the National Defence Academy.
The petitioner also added that gender discrimination has led to lack of opportunities for eligible women candidates to join NDA which later becomes hurdle in the career advancement of the female officers.
There will be a written test for two subjects: Mathematics and General Ability Test. Both papers will take two and a half hours to complete. The Mathematics paper will be worth 300 points, while the General Ability Test will be worth 600 points.
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The centre on its part informed the apex court that Women are being granted equal opportunity in the armed forces so far as job opportunities are concerned."There is no violation of any fundamental right merely on account of the mode of entries available to men and women to join the armed forces," the central government counsel added.
