#AIIMS Reservation for women: Social Justice withheld or denied ?

The country's premier medical institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is in news once again. However, this time for not so noble reasons. Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court took into cognizance the issue of gender equality at workplaces and issued a notice to the Centre and the AIIMS reagrding 80 percent reservation for women in nursing seats. 

"Reservation for women under Article 15(3) of the Constitution has been long overdue, it’s been a long overdue. In the present case, this relates to nursing staff which has traditionally been a long hold of women", a division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh observed. The bench also quashed the plea filed by three men who sought to alter the judgement. Social media platforms such as twitter have been bursting with the proclamtion:

Article 15 of the Indian Constitution states that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth. However, Article 15(3) states  that nothing in Article 15 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children.

The petitioners Harish Kumar Kajla, Rajesh Kumhar and Krishna Kumar Bohra, in the said the question here is whether 80 per cent reservation for women in the Nursing Cadre of AIIMS is unconstitutional or otherwise illegal.

The plea filed by them stated "the impugned decision was made during a Meeting held on July 27, 2019 of the ‘Central Executive Body’ of AIIMS. The said decision has been implemented in the recruitment drive organized vide Advertisement Notice dated August 5, 2020 issued by AIIMS, for filling up 4,629 vacancies of Nursing Officer, Level 07, PB-2, Group B post”.

Advocate Santosh Krishnan who appeared in the behalf of the petitioners said that the descion would adversely impact the male candidates who inspite of having a good qualification or experience would be denied work opportunities on the basis of reservation.

The plea further stated: “In the present case, the purported object of reservation is ‘patient comfort and care’. It is thus apparent that the object had nothing to do with benefitting women by way of better employment opportunities. The reservation is apparently only for the purpose of patient’s comfort. Hence, the reservation cannot be justified under Article 15(3)".

It should be also noted that this clearly violates the earlier norms of having a maximum of 50 percent reservation in public employment.
Meanwhile people have taken to twitter to show their displeasure :

Prime Minister Modi, who according to checkbrand.online has a brand worth of 327 Crores made the declaration public while also addressing AMU's 100 years celebrations. Earlier in December the nursing body had went on a strike against the declaration which was called off later. The strike was supported from unions across the country:

It is no alien fact that the percentage of workforce of women is way below that of men not just in India but globally. Whether this move is a nail in the coffin for gender injustices at workplace is a matter of debate and extensive discussion which can only be presided and thought upon by the judicial leadership of this nation.

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