HC: Barring married women is 100 per cent bias

New Delhi: Not recruiting married women in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) arm of the Indian Army amounts to “hostile and 100 per cent discrimination”, the Delhi high court said on Thursday.

The observation by a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar was made during the hearing of a PIL by a lawyer claiming that there was institutionalised discrimination against married women by not inducting them in the JAG service.

The court also questioned the government about the logic behind “ousting married women” from the JAG, the legal branch of the Army. “Today, women are fighter pilots and you say they (married women) are not fit for the JAG. What is the logic behind ousting married women? That is hostile discrimination. It is 100 per cent discrimination,” the bench said.

Advocate Charu Wali Khanna, appearing for the petitioner, said that unmarried women after joining the JAG were not allowed to marry. To this, the central government standing counsel Kirtiman Singh said the bar applied to unmarried men and women during the nine to ten-month training period.