Married daughters must be included as family members when calculating the per capita annual income of the deceased's family to determine eligibility for compassionate appointment; excluding them is arbitrary and discriminatory.

Jyotsna Rewal Dua, Judge

h Petitioner’s grievance is to the decision of the respondents contained in office letter dated 16.10.2023, rejecting the case of the petitioner for employment on compassionate grounds on account of his failing to meet the income criteria prescribed in the instructions dated 07.03.2019 and 01.11.2019 issued by the Finance

Department.

2. Heard and considered the case file.

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Whether reporters of print and electronic media may be allowed to see the order? Yes.

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3. Petitioner’s father-Sh. Achhru was a regular Beldar in the respondent-Public Works Department. He died in harness on 29.03.2020 and was survived by five

legal heirs, viz. three daughters, wife and a son. .After the death of petitioner’s father, family pension was granted in favour of his wife-mother of the peti tioner. Petitioner applied for employment on comopassionate grounds. His case was processed by the respondents. On 16.10.2023, the Departmental Screening Committee scrutinized and rejected petitioner’su case with the observation that the petitioner does not meet the income criteria as prescribed in the office instructions dated 07.03.2019 and 01.11.2019. That total income of petitioner’s family comes to Rs.2,86,148/-, i.e. Rs.2,46,148 (family pension) + Rs.40,000 (income from other sources). The income, being in excess of prescribed limit of Rs.1,87,500/- for a family of

Hthree members, the respondents turned down petitioner’s case. The individual income limit under the aforesaid office instructions has been fixed by the State at Rs.62,500/-, whereas in petitioner’s case, individual income comes to

Rs.82,049/-.

4. While ascertaining the satisfaction of income criteria by petitioner’s family vis-à-vis the actual income of

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his family, the respondents have erroneously treated petitioner’s family to be consisting of three members. It is the pleaded case of the respondents that petitioner’s family

consisted of five members. It appears that the resp.ondents have excluded two married daughters of late Sh. Achhru. In accordance with the decision rendered in Rakesh Kumar Versus State of Himachal Pradeosh and others2, married daughters are liable to be considered as part of family of the deceased and income of the family is to be computed accordingly. Relevaunt portion of the judgment reads as

under:-

“6. This Court wants to make an observation that when the deceased was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter, then not considering the daughter to be a part of the family of the deceased so as to assess as to whether the per person annual income of the family members of the deceased falls within the prescribed limit or not, is arbitrary. Simply because the daughter is

g married, this does not means that she loses her identity as member of the family of her father. The Court is i making this observation for the reason that it is not as if H on account of the marriage of the sons of the deceased, the wives of the sons of the deceased stand included as family members for this purpose. In case the criteria fixed by the Government is taken to its logical conclusion, then the factual position is that a girl by virtue of marriage loses her identity both as a daughter of her father as well as a member of her husband’s family, for the purpose of being counted as a family member to assess the income of the members of the deceased family for compassionate appointment. This in the considered view of the Court is arbitrary and discriminatory. There is no rationale as to why a

2 CWPOA No.6065 of 2019, decided on 02.06.2022

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daughter after marriage should not be counted as member of the family for the purpose of assessing the annual family income for compassionate appointment.

In case the criteria so fixed by the Government is given .

the stamp of approval by the Court, then the CourPt will also become a party to this gender inequality, be