Calcutta High Court: Cannot discriminate against children born out of void marriages while providing compassionate employment

The Calcutta High Court in the case Smt. Lachhmina Devi & Anr. -Vs- Union of India & Ors observed and has held that in cases for providing compassionate employment, it is ‘reprehensible’ to consider the source of inception of a child’s birth and to discriminate against those who may have been born from a void marriage.

The bench headed by Justice Ananya Bandopadhyay in the case observed and has held that the objective to grant compassionate appointment to redress financial constraints occasioned in a family in the event of the death of the bread earner ensures a means of sufficiency to assuage abrupt crisis and indigence, which cannot be refused ambiguously and unjustifiably on the basis of a circular which is unequivocally unconstitutional to judge a child’s entitlement to an appointment on compassionate ground which being on the basis of its descent.’