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The Army has told the Supreme Court that it does not recruit on the basis of caste, region and religion while justifying grouping of people coming from a region in a regiment for administrative convenience and operational requirements.
In an affidavit filed before the apex court, the Army refuted the allegation that unlike Air Force and Navy, there is “discriminatory classification” for recruitment on caste/religion/region basis to various regiments like Maratha Regiment, Rajasthan Rifles, Dogra Regiment, Jat Regiment, etc.
“Subject to the ineligibility imposed by the statute itself, the Act recognises that all citizens are eligible for enrolment in regular Army, and no discrimination has been made on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them,” the affidavit said.
The response was filed in compliance with the apex court order directing it to file response on a PIL filed by I.S. Yadav, a doctor hailing from Rewari in Haryana, seeking abolition of the Indian Army’s recruitment criteria for its duty soldiers on the grounds of caste, region and religion.
He said that there were 22 army regiments which were based on caste, region and religion.
“The assessment of the petitioner with regards to single-caste based regiment is incorrect since Dogra, Garwal Rifles, Madras Regiment are not defined by caste but by region. These regiments are drawn from specified social and linguistic groups without reference to caste being the source of recruitment,” the affidavit said.
It, however, admitted that certain regiments are composed and organised/grouped on reasonable classification lines but the overall process of recruitment is open to all classes.
“Certain regiments of the Army are organised on the lines of classification because social, cultural and linguistic homogeneity has been observed to be a force multiplier as a battle winning factor,” the affidavit said, adding, “The commonality of language and culture only further augments the smooth execution of operation.’’
“Composing or grouping the individuals of common region as the source of recruitment is for administrative convenience and common training/operational requirements,” it said.
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