"What is the rationale of marriage and eligibility": Delhi HC over policy barring married individuals in Army's JAG

The High Court also directed the Centre to file an affidavit pertaining to the policy in this regard. The Court said that it would test the policy.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday questioned the rationale of marriage and eligibility while hearing the petition challenging the policy barring entry of married men and women into Judge Advocate General (JAG), the legal branch of the Indian Army. The High Court also directed the Centre to file an affidavit pertaining to the policy in this regard. The Court said that it would test the policy.

A division bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad said, "There is no correlation between marriage and rigorous training. How marriage can be a factor or come in the way when a person is going on training for 11 months." The court granted four weeks to the Centre to file its response and posted the matter for hearing on March 22, 2023.

The Centre has amended its policy and now barred both married men and women from entry into JAG. During the hearing, the Centre opposed the entry of married individuals in JAG in view of the tuff 11 months of arms and field training. It was also said that there is no discrimination between men and women. "A person married can't be training in arms?" The bench asked and directed to put it on an affidavit.

Justice Prasad asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma the question, how does marital status in any way affect if a married person goes for training?" The ASG Sharma asserted that marriage and training have a correlation. Thereafter, the bench directed him to file an affidavit related to the policy and said that such a policy needed to be tested.

Justice Prasad said, "Please place your policy on an affidavit and then let us test that policy because marriage and training cannot have any co-relation." The bench also asked the government to inform whether the policy related to a married individual is uniform or it differs from course to course.

The court raised this question while hearing a plea filed in 2017 by advocate Kush Kalra challenging the policy. Advocate Charu Wali Khanna, counsel for the petitioner said that the policy is still discriminatory to the women wanting to enter JAG.

She argued that as per the advertisement, the eligibility age to apply for JAG is 21 to 27 years and in India 50 per cent of women get married before the age of 21 years. Advocate Kush Kalra had challenged the government's 2016 policy for being discriminatory to the female candidates as it barred married women from entry into JAG.

Kalra withdrew his earlier petition after the amendment in the policy and filed a fresh plea challenging the discrimination against married individuals and challenging the policy barring the married individual from entering into JAG. The petitioner has said that marital status is not an eligibility criteria for the judicial and Civil Services. It has sought a direction to declare the special Army instructions of 1992 and 2017 as void which barred married individuals from entering JAG. (ANI)

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