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Savita Samvedi (Ms) And Another v. Union Of India And Others
Factual and Procedural Background
The second appellant, an employee of the Indian Railways, was allotted Quarter No. 30/3 in the Railway Colony, Kishan Ganj, Delhi. He retired on 31 December 1993 but was permitted to retain the accommodation until 31 August 1994. On 18 March 1993, prior to retirement, he sought permission for his married daughter (the first appellant), herself a railway employee since 25 February 1973, to share the quarter so she could look after him and his ailing wife. Permission was granted on 31 May 1993 with an express caveat that she would not be entitled to regularisation after his retirement.
One day before the father’s retirement, the daughter applied for regularisation of the quarter, asserting that her brothers (employed outside Delhi and not in railway service) could not care for their parents. The request was denied on 31 January 1994 on the ground that a married daughter was ineligible under the governing Railway Board Circular dated 11 August 1992. Subsequent representations were also rejected. Both appellants then approached the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi, which dismissed their claim. The present appeal was filed before the Supreme Court of India.
Legal Issues Presented
- Whether a married daughter who is a railway employee can be regularised in her retiring father’s railway accommodation when the father has adult sons who are not railway employees.
- Whether the Railway Board Circular dated 11 August 1992, restricting such regularisation primarily to sons, withstands scrutiny under Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Arguments of the Parties
Appellants' Arguments
- The first appellant, being a long-serving railway employee, fulfilled all basic eligibility conditions except gender-based restrictions.
- Her brothers were not railway employees and were unable to maintain their parents; therefore she was the only child prepared and able to do so.
- The impugned circular discriminated on the basis of gender and marriage, violating Article 14 of the Constitution.
- Instances existed where married daughters had been granted regularisation, demonstrating inconsistent application of the policy.
Respondents' Arguments
- Reliance was placed on the Railway Board Circular dated 11 August 1992, which permits out-of-turn allotment only to a “son, unmarried daughter, wife, husband or father” of the retiring employee, extending the concession to a married daughter only if the retiring official has no son or if the sons are incapable of maintaining the parents (e.g., minor sons).
- Because the second appellant had two adult, gainfully employed sons, the pre-conditions in the circular were not met; therefore the daughter’s claim was ineligible.
Table of Precedents Cited
| Precedent | Rule or Principle Cited For | Application by the Court |
|---|---|---|
| Ambika R. Nair v. Union of India (TA No. 467 of 1986) | The earlier Railway Board circular was unconstitutional as it discriminated on the basis of gender and marital status. | Used to support the conclusion that the present circular also suffers from gender discrimination and must be read down under Article 14. |
| CAT, Bombay Bench, OA No. 314 of 1990 (12-2-1992) | Followed Ambika R. Nair to strike down gender-biased provisions in railway accommodation policies. | Cited as persuasive authority reinforcing the need to interpret the 1992 circular consistently with constitutional equality guarantees. |
Court's Reasoning and Analysis
The Supreme Court closely examined the Railway Board Circular of 11 August 1992. While the circular nominally allows a married daughter to succeed to a quarter, it imposes restrictive contingencies: absence of a son or incapacity of existing sons. The Court noted that eligibility for regularisation is, in any event, confined to railway employees; therefore, only children who are railway employees can legitimately vie for the benefit. Because the first appellant was the sole railway-employee child, the presence of non-railway-employee sons could not logically bar her claim.
Describing the circular as “wholly unfair, gender-biased and unreasonable,” the Court held that it violated Article 14 of the Constitution. It invoked a “literal interpretation” and a social maxim distinguishing enduring filial responsibility of daughters, underscoring the irrationality of privileging sons who are not even in railway service. The Tribunal’s contrary view was deemed erroneous for overlooking the employee-status requirement and for failing to address the constitutional infirmity.
Consequently, the Court read down the impugned circular to treat a married daughter on par with an unmarried daughter, subject to two conditions: (i) she must be a railway employee, and (ii) the retiring official must exercise his choice in her favour. Applied to the facts, the first appellant satisfied both conditions and therefore was entitled to regularisation.
Holding and Implications
APPEAL ALLOWED. The respondents are directed to regularise the railway quarter in favour of the first appellant with effect from the second appellant’s date of retirement and to adjust house-rent charges accordingly.
Implications: The decision reads down the Railway Board Circular of 11 August 1992, establishing that married daughters who are railway employees stand on equal footing with sons and unmarried daughters for purposes of succession to railway accommodation, thereby reinforcing gender equality under Article 14. While confined to railway quarters, the ruling signals broader intolerance for policy provisions that differentiate among children on the basis of gender and marital status.
M.M Punchhi, J.— Special leave granted.
2. This appeal voices a cry for gender justice.
3. The two appellants before us are a married daughter and father. The second appellant was in service of the Indian Railways. While in service, he was allotted quarter No. 30/3, Railway Colony, Kishan Ganj, Delhi. He was due to retire on 31-12-1993. It is a different matter that he was permitted to retain the railway quarter for the maximum permissible period of eight months thereafter up to 31-8-1994. Much prior to retirement, the second appellant on 18-3-1993 requested the Railway authorities concerned in permitting his married daughter, the first appellant to share the accommodation allotted to him on the basis that she was a railway employee at Delhi described as “Sr. S.O/T.A/D.K.Z”. He pointed out that he had two sons working out of Delhi, but neither of them was a railway employee, whereas his married daughter was one, and he needed her to look after him and his ailing wife. His request was granted favourably inasmuch as on 31-5-1993 permission was granted to the first appellant to share railway quarter of her father with effect from 16-3-1993 with the rider that she would not be entitled for regularisation of the railway quarter after the retirement of the second appellant. All the same, a day short of the retirement of the second appellant, the first appellant laid claim to the regularisation of the quarter contending that her brothers were not in a position to look after her parents, whereas she was, and would in future also look after her parents. The prayer was declined on 31-1-1994 on the ground that a married daughter was not eligible for regularisation of a railway quarter. The second appellant also made a representation to the Divisional and Superintending Engineer (Estates), Northern Railway, quoting instances where regularisation of railway accommodation had been made in favour of married daughters. The request was forwarded by the Divisional and Superintending Engineer to the General Manager, Northern Railway on 4-7-1994 pointing out that the first appellant was in railway service w.e.f 25-2-1973, sharing accommodation with her father with effect from 16-3-1993 and that she was not drawing House Rent Allowance on her part with effect from that date. Her request was declined because of the Railway Circular on the subject. Both the appellants then took the matter to the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi but without any success. They have thus knocked the doors of this Court for appropriate relief.
4. The respondents in defence rely upon the Railway Board Circular dated 11-8-1992, whereunder regularisation is permitted on terms. The operative part thereof reads as follows:
“Reference Railway Ministry's letters No. E(G)82 R 1-23 dated 27-12-1982 and E(G)85 R 1-9 dated 15-1-1990 as clarified vide their letters No. E(G)90 R 1-11 dated 15-3-1991 and 1-7-1991, conveying instructions that when a railway servant who is an allottee of railway accommodation retires from service, his/her son, unmarried daughter, wife, husband or father as the case may be, may be allotted railway accommodation on out-of-turn basis subject to fulfilment of prescribed condition.
The Ministry of Railways have reviewed the matter and in supersession of the instructions vide their letter No. E(G)82 R dated 27-12-1982 have decided to extend the scope of this concession to the married daughter of a retiring official, in case he does not have any son or in case where the married daughter is the only person who is prepared to maintain the parent(s) and the sons are not in a position to do so (e.g minor sons). This will be subject to the conditions already prescribed which are applicable to the other eligible wards seeking such concessions.
The decision communicated above will also be equally applicable in the case of death/medical unfitness.”
5. As is obvious from the plain reading of the Circular, the married daughter of a retiring official is eligible to obtain regularisation if her retiring father has no son. She thus has a foothold, not to be dubbed as an outcaste outright. In case he has a son, she shall not be in a position to do so, unless he is unable to maintain the parents e.g like a minor son, but then she should be the only person who is prepared to maintain her parents. It is thus plain that a married daughter is not altogether debarred from obtaining regularisation of a railway quarter, but her right is dependent on contingencies. The authorities concerned as also the Central Administrative Tribunal seemed to have overlooked the important and predominant factor that a married daughter would be entitled to regularisation only if she is a railway employee as otherwise, she by mere relationship with the retiring official, is not entitled to regularisation. Logically it would lead to the conclusion that the presence of a son or sons, able or unable to maintain the parents, would again have to be railway employees before they can oust the claim of the married daughter. We are not for the moment holding that they would be capable of doing so just because of being males in gender. Only on literal interpretation of the Circular, does such a result follow, undesirable though.
6. A common saying is worth pressing into service to blunt somewhat the Circular. It is —
“A son is a son until he gets a wife. A daughter is a daughter throughout her life.”
7. The retiring official's expectations in old age for care and attention and its measure from one of his children cannot be faulted, or his hopes dampened, by limiting his choice. That would be unfair and unreasonable. If he has only one married daughter, who is a railway employee, and none of his other children are, then his choice is and has to be limited to that railway employee married daughter. He should be in an unfettered position to nominate that daughter for regularisation of railway accommodation. It is only in the case of more than one children in railway service that he may have to exercise a choice and we see no reason why the choice be not left with the retiring official's judgment on the point and be not respected by the Railway authorities irrespective of the gender of the child. There is no occasion for the Railways to be regulating or bludgeoning the choice in favour of the son when existing and able to maintain his parents. The Railway Ministry's Circular in that regard appears thus to us to be wholly unfair, gender-biased and unreasonable, liable to be struck down under Article 14 of the Constitution. The eligibility of a married daughter must be placed on a par with an unmarried daughter (for she must have been once in that state), so as to claim the benefit of the earlier part of the Circular, referred to in its first paragraph, above-quoted.
8. The Tribunal took the view that when the Circular dated 11-8-1992 had itself not specifically been impugned before it and ex facie the conditions contained in the said Circular had not been satisfied in the present case, no relief need be given to the appellants. The Tribunal viewed that when there were two major sons of the second appellant, gainfully employed, the fact that they were not railway employees, not residing in Delhi, did not alter the situation that the terms of the Circular dated 11-8-1992 had not been satisfied, under which alone regularisation was permissible. As brought about before, the Tribunal overlooked this aspect that the Circular was meant only to enlist the eligibles, who could claim regularisation, but the important condition of one being a railway employee had to be satisfied before claim could be laid. In the instant case, the first appellant, on that basis, alone was eligible (subject to gender disqualification going). So the second appellant could exercise his choice/option in her favour to retain the accommodation, obligating the Railway authorities to regularise the quarter in her favour, subject of course to the fulfilment of other conditions prescribed. The error being manifest is hereby corrected, holding the first appellant in the facts and circumstances to be the sole eligible for regularisation of the quarter.
9. It was also pointed out before us that the Central Administrative Tribunal, Bombay Bench in one of its decisions in OA No. 314 of 1990 decided on 12-2-1992 (Annexure P-8) relying upon its own decision in Ambika R. Nair v. Union of India TA No. 467 of 1986 in which the earlier Circular of the Railway Board dated 27-12-1982 had been questioned, held the same to be unconstitutional per se as it suffered from the twin vices of gender discrimination inter se among women on account of marriage. We have also come to the same view that the instant case is of gender discrimination and therefore should be and is hereby brought in accord with Article 14 of the Constitution. The Circular shall be taken to have been read down and deemed to have been read in this manner from its initiation in favour of the married daughter as one of the eligibles, subject, amongst others, to the twin conditions that she is (i) a railway employee; and (ii) the retiring official has exercised the choice in her favour for regularisation. It is so ordered.
10. For the reasons stated above, this appeal is allowed and direction is issued to the respondents to grant regularisation of the quarter in favour of the first appellant with effect from the date of retirement of the second appellant and regulate/readjust the charges on account of house rent accordingly. There shall be no order as to costs.
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