HC bins co-op rule denying job to married daughter

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC on Monday struck down the provision of UP Cooperative Societies Employees' Service Regulations, 1975 which refrained married daughters from seeking job on compassionate grounds in the event of their fathers' death during service.
"If compassionate job has been given to daughters irrespective of their marital status, of the state government employees, there is no reason why such benefit should be refused to daughters of the deceased employees who have served a cooperative society in UP," it ruled.
‘It proves how state can be apathetic to gender justice’
A bench of Justices DK Upadhyay and OP Shukla passed the verdict on the writ petition moved by one Neelam Devi.
Expressing its displeasure on the issue, the bench observed, “Facts of this case presented before us manifest as to how the state can still be apathetic towards the cause of gender justice despite a clear declaration of law by the Supreme Court in the matter of compassionate appointment.”
The bench said that the state government on March 27, 2023 should not have rejected the proposal sent by the Institutional Service Board for amending Regulation 104 of the Regulation to include married daughters in the category of family.
The bench considered two judgments of the HC which interpreted that the married daughters were also entitled to appointment as state government employees on compassionate grounds in the event of their fathers’ death during the term of service – a decision which was later upheld by the Supreme Court.
The petitioner’s father, who was an assistant branch accountant in a co-operative bank, died during his service four years ago. The petitioner, the married daughter of the deceased employee, sought appointment in the department, but her plea was turned down in 2021. She later moved HC.