Marital Status Of A Daughter Alone Not A Ground For Rejecting Claim For Compassionate Appointment: Reiterates Allahabad HC [Read Judgment]

With this observation, Justice Manish Mathur has directed the state to reconsider the Petitioner's application for appointment in place of her deceased father. He directed,

"In view of the fact that petitioner's candidature has been rejected only on the ground of her marital status, a writ in the nature of certiorari is issued quashing the order dated 9th October, 2019/ 10th October, 2018. A further writ in the nature of mandamus is issued commanding the opposite parties to reconsider petitioner's candidature for compassionate appointment ignoring her marital status."

The law on this point has already been settled by the high court on two different occasions. In Smt. Vimla Srivastava v. State of UP & Ors., Writ C No. 60881/2015, a division bench had held that exclusion of married daughters from the ambit of expression, 'family' in Rule 2(c) of the Rules of 1974 is unconstitutional. It also struck down the word 'unmarried' in Rule 2(c) (iii) of the said Rules.

A similar view was later on adopted by another division bench of the high court in a case titled Neha Srviastava v. State of UP & Ors., SA (Def) No. 863/2015. Further, a SLP from this judgment came to be dismissed by the Supreme Court in the year 2016.

In this backdrop, Justice Mathur said,

"Once exclusion of married daughters from the ambit of expression 'family' under the aforesaid rules has already been held to be unconstitutional and the word 'unmarried' has already been struck down by two division benches of this Court as upheld by Hon'ble the Supreme Court, there is no further dispute required to be adjudicated upon due to which present writ petition is being decided at the admission stage itself."

Accordingly, the court has directed the concerned authority to pass a reasoned order in the matter, within a period of four weeks.

Case Details:

Case Title: Mala Devi v. State Of UP

Case No.: Service Single No. 4157/2020

Quorum: Manish Mathur

Appearance: Advocates Vijay Kumar Bajapai and Bhavana (for Petitioner)

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