The Delhi High Court has rejected the Centre’s advertisements which excluded women from being recruited in the Territorial Army (TA).
According to PTI, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said that the restriction on enrolment of women contained in the advertisements was “neither reasonable nor rational and has to be quashed”.
Any person mentioned in section 6 of the Territorial Army Act, 1948 would include both males as well as females, it declared.
Section 6 of the Act says, “Any person who is a citizen of India may offer himself for enrolment in the Territorial Army, and may if he satisfies the prescribed conditions, be enrolled for such period and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.”
The recruitment ads of the Centre were termed as having “no statutory support, no factual basis at all and is irrational.”
“The impugned advertisements to the extent they exclude women from appointment to the Territorial Army and the claimed policy in this regard are ultra vires of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India and are hereby quashed,” it said, reports PTI.
The High Court stressed that the training regime does not support the discrimination against the entry of women in the TA. This came after advocate Kush Kalra filed a PIL against this discrimination. The bench agreed with his contention and has maintained that women be recruited in the TA.