The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to vacate its order allowing women candidates to appear for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy examinations this year.
The court has turned down the Centre's plea to defer the first NDA exam for women until modalities are finalised in May and directed that they be allowed to sit in the upcoming exam on November 14.
A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.M. Sundresh affirmed that a "deferment won't send the right signal to women after we gave them the hope. Let's begin from this year." The court further said postponing the process of allowing women to take the NDA exams to May will delay their induction to 2023.
The government contended that certain infrastructural and curriculum changes are required to allow women's induction and so it had sought time till May 2022 to allow women take the exam.
The bench said the Armed Forces are trained to act in emergencies and it is the best response team. It reiterated that admissions of women cannot be postponed, taking note of petitioner’s submission that two exams are held by the NDA during a year.
