In the matter of Nidhi Chaudhary v. Union of India & Anr., the Apex Court of India rejected the plea to reserve fifty per cent of seats in the National Defence Academy for women.  The division bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Aravind Kumar held:

“The larger issue is being examined by us already. The opening for women candidates has to occur over a period of time. It is not possible to immediately have fifty per cent of the seats for women and this issue is already being examined by us. Thus, though we have sympathy for the petitioner, in the present scenario it is not possible for us to give any relief.”

The Court noted that though the Female Candidates have not scored the qualifying marks in ‘overall merit’ would have obtained more marks than some of the male candidates. The Court rejected the centre’s argument that the restriction against women was a matter of policy and permitted women to take the NDA recruitment examination.  

Before this landmark judgement, only male candidates could apply for the examination. Previously, the Court rejected the plea of the Defence Minister's plea to postpone the induction of women into the academy. The ministry had sought time till May 2002 to allow women to take the recruitment examination.

The bench observed, “Nineteen seats cannot be for all times to come. It was only an ad hoc measure.” Additional Solicitor-General for India, Aishwarya Bhati had sought to justify the decision to limit the intake of successful women candidates to 19 by saying, “The aspect of intake is not just connected to infrastructure in the academy but also the requirement of forces.”