Karnataka High Court Rules That Married Daughters Also Have The Right To A Deceased Parent’s Job
As it is being born a woman in this world puts us at a disadvantage. With the deep-rooted patriarchy and stereotypes that have been nurtured over centuries, brainwashing generations has led people to believe that women are lesser than men, which has lead to a world that only favours men. Proof? The existing law that contested only unmarried daughters have a claim to a parent’s job on compassionate grounds after their parent’s demise. Something that the Karnataka HC is working to change.
Coming across as a landmark and a much needed judgement, the Karnataka High Court has recently ruled that married daughters, too, are entitled to seek employment that the parent held on ground of compassiona as they don’t simply cease to be part of the family after they get married. The court directed the government to consider the petitioner’s appeal for a job in one of its departments.
This ruling came after Bhuvaneswari V Puranik, from Bengaluru, filed for a job on compassionate grounds in 2017 after her father who worked as a secretary in the office of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee at Kuduchi in Belagavi District died in 2016, while he was still serving. Her plea having been rejected, since the Joint Director argued that she was married and no longer a part of her father’s family. She then took her her plight to the court.
Even a married daughter of a deceased government employee can be considered for a compassionate appointment, Karnataka High Court has ruled.@santwana99https://t.co/EeZaigoqfJ
— TNIE Karnataka (@XpressBengaluru) December 17, 2020
Also Read : ‘An Adult Woman Can Reside Wherever She Wants And With Whoever She Chooses’ Says Delhi HC. We Need A Court To Remind Us That Women Are Adults
The #Karnataka High Court strikes down the word ‘unmarried’ from rules to seek compassionate appointment by family members of #government employeeshttps://t.co/ZWdGd9f5j1
— The Hindu-Bengaluru (@THBengaluru) December 16, 2020
“Half the world, and not even half a chance,” the HC said while making a ruling that now allowed married daughters with the same right that was being extended to married sons of the family. Calling the earlier rule ‘discriminatory’, and we agree, the court said married daughters’ exclusion from the extent of definition of ‘family’ under the Karnataka Cuvil Services Rules 1996, was illegal and discriminatory, and to top it all – unconstitutional.
The order said, “If the marital status of a son does not make any difference in law to his entitlement for seeking appointment on compassionate grounds, (then) the marital status of a daughter (too) should make no difference. Law cannot make an assumptions that married sons alone continue to be a part of the family.”
Further to this, Justice M Nagaprasanna said, “nature bestows so much on women (and) the law cannot bestow too little.” It’s a shame that a daughter of the house is considered an outsider the moment she marries another man, while no such predicament follows the marriage of a son. However, it is a positive sign to see the law recognise how such bias simply cannot be furthered, and we are extremely satisfied with Karnataka HC’s recent ruling.
