Supreme Court strikes down gender-based reservation in Army JAG recruitment

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday invalidated the Indian Army’s policy of reserving six Judge Advocate General (JAG) posts for men and only three for women, holding the arrangement to be arbitrary and violative of the right to equality.

A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan directed the Union government to prepare a single merit list for all eligible candidates, irrespective of gender.

"The executive cannot reserve vacancies for men. The seats of six for men and three for women are arbitrary and cannot be allowed under the guise of induction," a bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Dipankar Datta said.

Hearing a petition challenging the restriction of women to half the available seats, the bench further remarked that "no nation can be secure if such policies are followed" and directed the government to conduct recruitment and publish a combined merit list for all candidates, including both men and women.

"To compensate women for their previous non-enrollment, the Union of India shall allocate not less than 50 per cent of the vacancies to women candidates. However, to restrict women to 50 per cent of the seats... despite being meritorious than the male candidates is violative of the right to equality...," the court further said.

The JAG branch of the army, or the Judge Advocate General's Corps, is the legal arm of the military. Its members, known as judge advocates, are lawyers who serve as officers in the army. They provide a wide range of legal services to the military, including commanders, soldiers, and their families.