New Delhi [India], September 22 (ANI): The Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday a Public Interest Litigation alleging that the Territorial Army has continued to provide a disproportionately higher number of officer vacancies to male candidates while restricting women candidates to a single vacancy in each recruitment cycle since 2022.
The petition has been filed by Kush Kalra, a National Youth Award recipient and author, who has challenged the alleged recruitment pattern as discriminatory and violative of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.
According to the petition, the Territorial Army provided 12 vacancies for men against one for women in 2022, 18 against one in 2023, 18 against one in 2025 and 11 against one in 2026. It further alleges that separate merit lists have been maintained for male and female candidates.
The petitioner argues that such a recruitment pattern defeats the purpose of the Delhi High Court’s earlier judgment in Kush Kalra v. Union of India, passed in January 2018, which held that women could not be excluded from Territorial Army officer recruitment merely on the basis of gender.
The Court had held that the expression “any person” under Section 6 of the Territorial Army Act, 1948 includes both men and women.
The petition traces the issue back to 2015, when Kalra had raised objections to the exclusion of women from officer recruitment. After the authorities maintained that women were not eligible under the Territorial Army Act, he approached the High Court, resulting in the 2018 judgment.
The present plea alleges that although women were subsequently permitted to join the Territorial Army, the allocation of vacancies has continued to remain heavily skewed in favour of male candidates. The petitioner describes the continued one-seat allocation for women as a form of “tokenism” and contends that it does not provide genuine equality of opportunity.
The petition also refers to the 2024 recruitment notification for Cyber Task, under which four vacancies were advertised for “Civilian Candidates (Male/Female)” without bifurcation between male and female candidates. According to the petitioner, this shows that a common recruitment process without gender-based division can be followed.
The plea relies upon the Supreme Court’s August 11, 2025 judgment in Arshnoor Kaur & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors., as well as its earlier judgment in Secretary, Ministry of Defence v. Babita Puniya, to contend that women cannot be subjected to discriminatory restrictions in recruitment merely on the basis of gender.
The petitioner states that following the August 2025 Supreme Court judgment, he submitted a representation to the Secretary, Ministry of Defence on August 13, 2025, seeking corrective measures in Territorial Army recruitment. However, according to the plea, no remedial action was communicated to him.
The petition further states that the 2026 recruitment notification again provided 11 vacancies for male candidates against one vacancy for women, with separate merit lists. The entrance examination under the notification was conducted on July 12, 2026.
The petitioner has sought a declaration that the alleged practice of disproportionately allocating vacancies on the basis of gender is unconstitutional. He has also sought directions to the authorities to adopt a genuinely merit-based and gender-neutral recruitment process, including a common merit list, for Territorial Army officer recruitment.
The plea seeks what it describes as the full and effective implementation of the Delhi High Court’s 2018 judgment and alleges that the subsequent recruitment framework has failed to provide women candidates equal opportunity. The matter is listed for hearing before the Delhi High Court tomorrow. (ANI)
Delhi HC to hear PIL alleging gender disparity in territorial army officer recruitment
