Punjab & Haryana High Court Issues Notice To Union On Plea To Use Gender Inclusive Terms In Army Instead Of "Ex-Service Man"

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has issued notice on the plea seeking directions to Union government to use gender inclusive term instead of "Ex-service man" to refer the Ex-Service Personnel for the purposes of certain schemes and benefits of the Central Government.

It is contended that even the terminology used in the title of the department that was created to lay focused attention to the welfare and resettlement of Ex-service personnel is gender-specific i.e. “Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare” and the same is the case with rules for reservation for ex-service personnel i.e. Ex- servicemen (Re-employment in Central Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979’.

Considering the submissions, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Nidhi Gupta issued notice to the Union government and other authorities. 

The Petition is filed by a retired Short Service Commissioned Officer Captain Sukhjit Pal Kaur Sanewal through Advocate Navdeep Singh seeking directions to Central government to employ gender- inclusive terminology while referring to former women members of the defence services instead of ‘Ex-Service man’, that is currently being used by the Union and other authorities in policies and communications.

The petition highlights that the Karnataka High Court has already addressed the issue in Priyanka R Patil v. Kendriya Sainik Board [WP No.19722 of 2021] and it has called for changes in the nomenclature employed to refer to retired army, navy and air force personnel, suggesting the Union and the State Government to use the term ‘ex-service personnel’ in place of the term ‘ex-servicemen’ in its policy making endeavours.

It also refers to Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes which has been issued by Supreme Court to identify and remove the use of words and phrases, which are loaded with gender stereotypes, in judgments and court language.

The plea also gives reference to countries like UK, the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Australia which are already using gender neutral terminology for addressing a person who served in the military.

The matter is now listed for January 25, for further consideration.

Advocates Navdeep Singh, Jasneet Kaur, Himani Makkad, Aproova Pushkarna, Akansha Duvedi, Roopan Atwal represented the petitioner.

Case Title:Captain Sukhjit Pal Kaur Sanewal (Read.) v. UOI & Ors.

 Click here to read/download the order