Can't deny them hope: Supreme Court says no to Centre's plea of deferring first NDA exam for women to next year

Rejecting Centre's plea to defer the first NDA exam for women candidates to next year, the Supreme Court has directed that women will be allowed to sit for the upcoming exam on November 14. On induction of women in NDA, the Supreme Court said, "We don't want women to be denied their right, needful be done by defence department in collaboration with UPSC."

The Supreme Court also reportedly said that deferring women's entry "won't send the right signal to women after having given them the aspiration..let's begin from this year.”

Supreme Court tells the Centre that it cannot vacate its interim order that allowed female aspirants to take the NDA entrance examination to be held in November this year pic.twitter.com/oWRzuycRjD — ANI (@ANI) September 22, 2021

Earlier, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court had allowed women to take the National Defence Academy (NDA) exam scheduled for September this year. While passing its order, the apex court said that admissions will be subject to the final orders of the court. 

The Supreme Court also came down heavily on the Indian Army for not allowing women to take part in NDA exams, Sainik Schools and other military institutions. 

The top court said that while the Indian Navy and Air Force have already made provisions, the Indian Army still lags behind and chided its “regressive mindset”.