SC flays gender bias in Army Dental Corps recruitment process

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has  pointed out “an anomalous situation” in the recruitment process for women in Army Dental Corps. Noting that male candidates having rank till 2,394 were allowed to participate in the selection process whereas the cut off rank for women was 235, a bench of justices BR Gavai and Aravind Kumar prima facie opined the government stand was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution as it denied women their fundamental right.

“We find that an anomalous situation has arisen due to such a stand. Whereas a male candidate who is 10 times less meritorious than a female candidate is permitted to appear in the selection process, a female candidate who is 10 times meritorious than a male candidate is deprived from being participating in the selection process,” the court said.

It further said: “Prima facie, we find that depriving the highly meritorious female candidates from participating in the selection process is putting the clock in reverse direction. Leave aside giving preferential treatment to the female as envisaged under Article 15, the stand of the respondent – Union of India – is violative of Article 14, inasmuch as it deprives a meritorious female to compete and permits much less meritorious male to participate in the selection process.”

Additional Solicitor Genera KM Nataraj argued that this was on the ground of various exigencies which are peculiar to the defence services. It was also his contention that this had resulted in stalling the entire selection process which thereby deprived the defence service of dental surgeon.