Women can now join the Territorial Army (TA) as the Delhi High Court on Friday quashed the Centre’s advertisements excluding them from being recruited, ruling the ads were ultra vires the fundamental rights provided under the Constitution.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the restriction on enrolment of women contained in the advertisements was “neither reasonable nor rational and has to be quashed”.
It also declared that ‘any person’ mentioned in section 6 of the Territorial Army Act, 1948 “includes both males as well as females”.
“Women are eligible for recruitment and appointment to the Territorial Army under section 6 of the Indian Territorial Army Act, 1948,” the bench held. It said the recruitment advertisements of the Centre for appointments into the TA, the second line of defence after the regular Army, “have no statutory support, no factual basis at all and is irrational”.
“The impugned advertisements to the extent they exclude women from appointment to the Territorial Army and the claimed policy in this regard are ultra vires of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India and are hereby quashed,” it said.