Army’s recruitment policy has come under the scrutiny in the Supreme Court. A review petition filed in court has produced fresh evidence by way of RTI response indicating that there is no scope of any discrimination in recruitment to armed forces, contrary to the stand taken by Army justifying such classification to suit “operational requirement”.
Haryana-based doctor IS Yadav, who filed the review petition against the dismissal of his PIl by the SC on February 11 this year has drawn support from the RTI response by the Government to a set of questions put by him.
Quoting the response of the Government in the petition, Yadav said, “After Independence, the Government directed that recruitment in the Army should be opened to all Indian nationals, irrespective of class, caste, creed or religion provided the specified physical and educational qualifications were met.”
In response to the RTI query whether policy of discrimination was practiced in Army recruitment, the Government further said that the policy behind recruitment was to eliminate communal and class differences and have an Army with representation from all Indian nationals. “Recruitment in the Army will be open to all classes. No particular class of Indian nationals will be denied the opportunity of serving in the Indian Army,” added the response given by the Centre.
In this backdrop, the review petition argued that the scheme of recruitment into regiments such as Jat, Sikh, Maratha, Rajasthan Rifles, Dogra, etc, was unconstitutional and against their own declared policy. Currently, there are 22 Army regiments set apart by caste, class, religion and region distinctions.
In an affidavit filed before the court, the Army argued, “Certain regiments of the Army are organised on lines of classification because social, cultural and linguistic homogeneity has been observed to be a force multiplier as a battle winning factor.” The Army further indicated “the commonality of language and culture only further augments the smooth execution of operation”.
The apex court had accepted this line of argument put forth by Army and dismissed Yadav’s PIl on the ground that he had no right to challenge the recruitment policy as it was for someone aggrieved by the recruitment to approach the court. The review petition is expected to be heard by the same bench which had dismissed the PIl.