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Informist, Tuesday, Jun. 2, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Tuesday held that exclusion of married daughters as dependents from the definition of family for their compassionate appointment under government schemes is constitutionally invalid. Excluding married daughters in the government schemes solely on the basis of marital status and gender stereotypes violates Articles 14 and 15(1) of the Constitution of India, said the bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe.

 

The apex court asked the competent authority to issue an allotment order in favour of Kulsum Nisha, the married daughter of a deceased dealer, for appointment as a fair price shop dealer on compassionate grounds. The court said that exclusion of the married daughter who is dependent upon the deceased dealer and resides with the family and is capable of running the fair price shop would directly frustrate the purpose of Right to Equality and Right to protection against discrimination by the state.

 

The Uttar Pradesh government's law on fair price shops to exclude married daughters proceeds on the assumption that upon marriage a daughter ceases to be a member of, or dependent upon, her parental family, said the apex court. Such an assumption is constitutionally impermissible, said the court. Marriage neither extinguishes the bond between a daughter and her parental family nor furnishes a valid basis to presume absence of dependency, said the court.

 

The top court said that contemporary social realities demonstrate that many married daughters continue to reside with, support, or remain dependent upon their parents. Equally, there may be sons who are not dependent upon the family despite being included within the definition, said the court. Dependency is a question of fact and cannot be conclusively determined by reference to marital status alone, it said.  

 

Significantly, the Uttar Pradesh government's scheme does not exclude a married son from consideration of appointment, said the court. A son continues to remain within the fold of the family irrespective of his marital status, whereas a daughter is excluded solely because she is married, said the court. The distinction is founded upon a gender-based stereotype that a daughter, upon marriage, becomes a member of another family and loses all ties with her natal family, said the court. Such a presumption is incompatible with the constitutional guarantee of equality and perpetuates historical notions of gender inequality which the Constitution seeks to eradicate, it added.

 

The Supreme Court observed that a blanket exclusion of all married daughters cannot be justified on the speculative assumption that every married daughter necessarily resides elsewhere. Constitutional adjudication cannot be founded on presumptions that are overbroad and disconnected from lived realities, said the Supreme Court.

 

The apex court said that the expression "daughters" used in the state government's law will include a married daughter who furnishes a dependency certificate along with no objection certificates from other adult family members of the deceased dealer and is a local resident and satisfies all other eligibility conditions prescribed in the government order. The provision, so construed, would neither suffer from any invalidity nor any constitutional infirmity, said the top court. 

 

The case has its genesis from a fair price shop in Amethi district, Uttar Pradesh, allotted to Badrun Nisha, who was the mother of the petitioner, in 2012. Thereafter, the mother died, leaving the married daughter as the sole earning member of the household responsible for her four sisters, one of whom is visually impaired. The petitioner, even after her marriage, continued to reside with her mother and sisters. The government officers rejected the married daughter's application for appointment of dealer on compassionate grounds, which the Allahabad High Court also affirmed. Challenging the high court's order, the married daughter moved the Supreme Court.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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