On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a plea seeking reservation for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Classes in admission to the National Defence Academy (NDA), “You cannot segregate them (Armed Forces) on the basis of caste," said Justice SK Kaul.

The bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice MM Sundersh clarified that it was focussed on gender issues at present and expressed disinclination to deviate into other issues such as caste-based reservations in the Armed Forces. 

The petition was filed by Kailas More raising the issue of gender discrimination in the military college, the Rashtriya Military Schools and the Sainik Schools, pleading the court’s intervention in considering caste-based quota to ensure all communities could join the armed forces.

The bench observed that caste reservation in military schools could not be allowed and said, “ Constitutional provisions for the reservation do not work in this way...We are focussed on gender issues and would not want you to divide it into other issues of caste, etc.” 

In a historic decision earlier in 2021, the Apex Court had passed an interim order permitting women to appear in entrance tests conducted for NDA, allowing women to appear for the examinations conducted in November, 2021, for the first time in history. However, the Court expressed disinclination to deviate into other issues. 

“We are focussed only on gender issues...don’t divide it into other issues. A revolution doesn’t come overnight. It takes time. There is a beginning made. Social changes take some time and here, the first chapter has been written. Let the first chapter get over,” the bench told More.

ASG Aishwarya Bhati, appearing on behest of the central government told the court that some girls were admitted to Sainik Schools on an experimental basis. "The induction of woman cadets in NDA has been a major policy decision. The respondents need sufficient time for deliberating implications in the long term for induction and deployment of ex-NDA women cadets in the Indian Armed Forces. It is, therefore, submitted that the respondents require at least three months additional time towards this," the Centre told the Court.

The Court adjourned the hearing to the next date, 19th July 2022, after the ASG said that he needed time to study the implications of the same.