After the Supreme Court rejected the government's argument that restraining women candidates from the Pune-based National Defence Academy was a policy decision, it passed an interim order allowing women candidates to sit for the exam. Therefore, women aspirants comprised nearly 22 per cent of the total applications, with 1,47,000 registrations for the exam. Last year, the government received 1,78,000 applications from women candidates, including 31 per cent of the total 5,70,000 applications. The country's premier training institute exam is held twice every year. NDA-1, 2022 is scheduled to be held on April 10, 2022.
Women Candidates Allowed Only In Certain Branches
Hindustan Times reported former Army Officer Shalini Singh, "The last (exam) was the first attempt, so there was a lot of excitement. However, through conversations with women from tier-2 cities and studying in class 11, I learned that not many are aware that they can apply for the defence exam. There is also not much knowledge on how women need to go about it". Till the top court's ruling last year, women candidates were allowed to serve in certain branches of the Indian Army, Navy and Airforce in the Short Service Commission category.
After the last year's exam, the Union Public Service Commission declared only 19 women candidates successful. Therefore, the Supreme Court also questioned the government's logic behind restricting women cadets to only 19 in a course. The government had answered that the figure is derived from the current requirements of the Indian Armed Forces. Moreover, it further said that "a considered decision has been taken" to allot ten vacancies for women cadets in the NDA for the army, three for the navy and six for the air force, respectively.
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