Caste off Army? SG’s view sought

The Supreme Court has sought the assistance of solicitor general Rohinton Nariman in taking a call on whether the recruitment in the army on the basis of caste, region and religion is justified. In a PIL filed by one IS Tadav, it has been argued that this sort of reservation in the army is an anathema to the Constitutional provisions that ensure that no one shall be discriminated on the basis of caste, religion or region.

There should be no discrimination in the recruitment of soldiers so that the disciplinarian and uniformed force could become a monolithic force, the PIL that was taken up for hearing by a bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said.

There are 22 regiments which are raised on the basis of caste, region and religion. Besides parachute and special forces regiment, there are regiments which derive their names from the regions such as Punjab, Madras, Assam, Bihar and J&K, Maratha, Rajputana, Rajput, Jat, Sikh, Dogra, Garhwal, Ladakh and Mahar, Kumaon and Naga.

Judges refused to issue notice to the Union government but asked the petitioner to serve a copy of the law suit to Nariman to facilitate him in assisting the court appropriately. Yadav’s counsel S Balakrishnan said different units of cavalry too are based on caste, region and religion. For instance, the president’s bodyguard is an example of gross injustice done trough caste/class/region based recruitment, he said. In this elite regiment which comes into operation at the ceremonies, three castes namely Hindu Rajput, Hindu Jat and Jat Sikh can alone be enrolled, the PIL said.

Referring to the fact that army provides employment to around 15 lakh people and 25% of its personnel retire every year paving the way for fresh recruits, the PIL said such a large foundation of employment and opportunity “to serve the motherland should not be kept as the pocket privilege for the captive consumption of any particular caste, class, community, region or religion.”