Supreme Court strikes down Armys coverage limiting ladies officers appointment to Judge Advocate General posts

Noting that benefit, and never gender, have to be the idea of choice, the Supreme Court on Monday (August 11, 2025) struck down a coverage of the Army limiting the appointment of ladies officers to the Judge Advocate General (JAG) department.

A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan mentioned a coverage bifurcating candidates on the idea of gender and reserving extra posts for males didn’t meet the requirements of regulation. Section 12 of the Army Act, 1950 grants exception to ladies and permits them to hitch branches just like the JAG, of which major goal is to legally advise the Army.

“The Executive can not prohibit numbers and/or make reservation for male officers underneath the guise of induction by means of coverage or administrative directions,” the Court noticed.

A notification offering ladies solely three posts in comparison with the provision of double the variety of vacancies for males would violate the very grain of the basic proper to equality, the Court famous.

The Court reasoned that the choice standards and testing parameters for women and men had been the identical in JAG although they could occupy totally different posts. Men and girls officers didn’t have totally different situations of service, the Court mentioned.

The Court mentioned the Union Government ought to allocate 50% of the vacancies for girls within the JAG department, noting that no nation will be secured by just one half of its inhabitants.