The Supreme Court on Wednesday passed an order permitting female candidates to appear for the entrance examinations for the National Defence Academy (NDA) on September 5, 2021. The Court, however, said that admissions will be subject to the outcome of the petition.
The order was passed in a writ petition filed seeking an order to permit female candidates to appear for NDA entrance examinations. The petition argued that denial of opportunity to women to appear in the examination was violative of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19 of the Constitution of India. It is pertinent to that there are three modes of entry into the armed forces: the National Defence Academy (NDA), Officers’ Training Academy (OTA) and Indian Military Academy (IMA). Women are allowed entry through the OTA and IMA.
The Government said that it was a policy decision to not allow women to appear for the NDA examination. The Court noted that the decision is based on gender discrimination, and given that women are allowed entry into the armed forces through two other sources, this was discriminatory not just on the basis of gender, but even otherwise.
