New Delhi: All recruitments to Army Dental Corps made gender-neutral from now

New Delhi : All recruitment to the Army Dental Corps (ADC) will henceforth be gender neutral and there will be no separate quotas for males and females, the Union government has told the Supreme court.

The apex court had on April 11 frowned upon the recruitment to the ADC where just 10 per cent of vacancies were meant for women, observing it was like "putting the clock in reverse direction".

Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj informed a bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol on May 8 that the government has decided to do away with separate quotas for men and women and all future recruitment will be gender neutral. The order was uploaded on the apex court's website on Wednesday. The top court recorded the submission of ASG and disposed of a plea filed by women dental doctors led by Gopika Nair, a Coimbatore resident. "ASG further submits that hereinafter the selection would be made by applying gender neutral formula. In that view of the matter, we find that the grievance of the petitioners stands satisfied. The special leave petition is disposed of accordingly", the bench said.

Nataraj informed the court that in accordance with its directions the petitioners who had moved the SC and those before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh were interviewed by the respondents, and as per the result sheet, three female candidates find place in the list of 27 people.

“It is submitted that the said three female candidates would be appointed as per their position in the select list of first 27 candidates. It is submitted that insofar as three seats reserved for female category are concerned, they would be filled by the female candidates as per their merit after the first 27 candidates are appointed,” the court recorded in its order dated May 8.

Nataraj submitted since there are other vacancies, three more male candidates would also be accommodated.

On April 11, the top court had pulled up the Centre for setting aside only 10 per cent seats for women in the ADC, observing “Prima facie, we find that depriving the highly meritorious female candidates from participating in the selection process is putting the clock in reverse direction.”