The Apex Court Issues A Provisional Order Allowing Women To Appear For The NDA Entrance Examination

CASE BACKGROUND

• The public interest litigation raised the issue of violation of Articles 14, 15, 16, and 19 of the Indian Constitution by denial of eligible and willing female applicants the opportunity to enrol and train themselves as future leaders of the Indian Armed Forces at the National Defence Academy.
• The exclusion of women from training at the National Defence Academy and being commissioned into the Indian Armed Forces as Permanent Commissioned Officers solely for their gender is a desecration of the Fundamental Right to practice any profession and it was unforgiveable under the Indian Constitution.

CASE PROCCEDINGS

• According to the petitioner, willing and qualified female candidates were being denied entry to the National Defence Academy on the basis of their gender.
• Systematically and categorically excluding eligible female candidates from training at the Indian Armed Forces' premier joint training institute later becomes a barrier in the enrolment process.
• The respondents' act of categorically excluding qualified and willing woman candidates from coming into work for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examinations solely on the basis of their gender, according to the plea, was a violation of the Fundamental Right to Equality before the Law and the Equal Protection under the Law.
• The exclusion of qualified female candidates from the National Defence Academy was not legally justified and was based only on their gender.
• The plea further claimed that women's exclusion, which was purely on the basis of sex, was a violation of the Fundamental Right to protection from state discrimination on the basis of sex.

CASE RELEVANCE

• A Division Bench containing Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy had issued an interim order in the writ petition case, which was filed by Kush Kalra, who was seeking approval for women applicants to compete for the NDA exam.
• The Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing women to sit the National Defence Academy (NDA) admission exam slated for September 5. The outcome would be subject to the petitions' final decision.
• In light of the above-mentioned order, for the UPSC, it was also compulsory to issue a proper corrigendum statement and to provide due publicity so that the main determination of the judgement could be interpreted into effect.

What do you think about this case?