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The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to include women in the permanent commissions of NDA and Naval Academy from this year's examination that is scheduled to be held on November 2021.

A division bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice MM Sundaresh said, "We appreciate the endeavour but what we are finding difficult to accept is postponing everything by a year."

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) had filed an affidavit at the supreme court stating that the necessary mechanism to recruit women cadets in the permanent commissions will be in place by May 2022. 

Senior Advocate Chinmoy Sharma appearing for the petitioner while referring to the affidavit submitted that there are 2 examination that takes place in a year, and the joining takes place in the next year and following the schedule of intake submitted by Centre this will happen in June 2023. 

In furtherance of this, the bench clarified with the ASG Aishwarya Bhati that whether they will be allowed to sit in the examination scheduled in November 2021 to which Bhati said no.

The bench said, "Exams has already been directed to be held, interim order has already been passed, Armed Forces Team is prepared for the worst emergency, I believe there will be no difficulty."

The COurt has said that they will keep the matter pending while stating that "Some of the areas which needs to be addressed set out in the affidavit, the aspects refers to the medical fitness, the intake strength, requirements of infrastructure, accommodation, and all these aspects are expected to be addressed by a study group."

Justice Kaul clarified that "In this exam the idea is to begin, next step will be in the next examination. You'll get a better process next time, it's a big step and we appreciate that."

The Court has posted the matter for further hearing on a Tuesday in the third week of January.

The affidavit states that considering the timeline, necessary arrangements need to be made to the infrastructure of the National Defence Academy (NDA) to ensure smooth induction and seamless training of women candidates.

According to the affidavit, while medical standards for male cadets is already in place, they need to be formulated for women cadets in consultation with the defence services and the Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services.

The affidavit also mentions that constructing facilities such as separate living quarters, rest rooms  in addition to recruitment of more gynaecologists, sports medicine specialists, lady attendants and nurses will have to be done prior to recruiting women cadets. It further prays for disposal of the petition by taking on record the affirmative stand of the government. 

Case Title: Kush Kalra Vs. Union of India