Aanganwadi Workers | 'Depriving Women Of Public Employment For Her Being Unmarried Violates Articles 14, 16': Rajasthan HC

The Rajasthan High Court has held that depriving a woman of public employment on the grounds of her being unmarried, apart from being violative of fundamental rights guaranteed to a woman under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, also impinges upon a woman’s dignity.

The bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta stressed that the State can not prevent a woman from claiming a job simply because she has not tied the nuptial knot.

"The condition of a woman to be married being absolutely unconscionable and violative of women’s right to apply and get public employment is liable to be declared arbitrary and unconstitutional," the Court further held.

The Court observed thus while dealing with a writ petition filed by an unmarried woman challenging a Condition [Condition No.2(A)(ii)] in the State Government's Circular of 2016 concerning the selection and appointment with the engagement of Aanganwari Karyakarta, Mini Karyakarta and Helper. The said condition allowed only unmarried women to apply for the posts.

It was her contention before the HC that the state of Rajasthan's advertisement issued in 2019 inviting only married women candidates to apply for the posts of Aanganwadi Karyakarta and other posts was discriminatory as it did not allow her, an unmarried woman, to apply for the posts.

On the other hand, defending the condition in the circular allowing only married women to apply, the Counsel for the state government argued that the condition in question has a rationale behind it -and that is, after being engaged as an Aanganwadi Worker or Helper, if a candidate gets married and shifts to her marital home (located at a different place), the working of the Center where she was appointed would get hampered.

Having heard counsels for both sides, the Court, at the outset, opined that the discrimination which was meted out to the unmarried women on account of the offending condition on the circular of the government cannot be countenanced.

Calling the said condition as ex-facie illegal, arbitrary and against the very scheme of the Constitution of India, which guarantees equality, the Court observed that the condition was an entirely new front of discrimination, which was not even envisaged or thought of by the framers of the Constitution.

"Present case is a classic case wherein, the discrimination encountered by women has been given a new facet. An unmarried woman is discriminated against a married woman. The ostensible reason given to support the oppugned condition that an unmarried woman after marriage would migrate to her matrimonial house does not pass muster the test of reasonableness and prudence. Mere fact that a candidate is unmarried cannot be a reason to disqualify her," the Court further observed. 

The Court also observed that the following questions were required to be asked to the policymakers of the State:

"What if, the candidate marries to a boy of the same village or vicinity? What if, a married woman after being engaged as Anganwadi Karykarta moves to other place? What if, a woman’s husband decides to live in a woman’s parental home? What if, a woman gets widowed or divorced and decides to move to a new place? and What if, a woman does not wish to marry at all !"

Against this backdrop, holding that marital status or the condition of a woman to be married to work in Aanganwadi hardly fulfills any object, the Court quashed the impugned Condition No. (ii) of para No.2(A) of the Circular of 2016 as well as Condition No.1 of the advertisement of June 2019 to the extent they required a woman to be unmarried.

"The apprehension that after marriage, a women will move on to her matrimonial house is firstly baseless and secondly, it cannot be a reason to justify or protect the offending condition," the Court said.

However, the Court made it open for the State to take a requisite undertaking from the unmarried woman candidates or amend the Circular so as to ensure that if a woman having been engaged on any post in any Anganwadi Center migrates to a place other than the area covered by the Aanganwadi Center on account of marriage or otherwise, her engagement will be brought to an end.

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