Why exclude married daughters from appointment on

The Allahabad High Court today asked Uttar Pradesh government to explain why married daughters of deceased government servants were not included in the list of dependants eligible for appointment on compassionate grounds.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Yashwant Verma, passed the order on a writ petition of Vimla Srivastava, a resident of Azamgarh district, who has challenged the validity of the clause under UP Recruitment of Govt Servants Dying In Harness Rules whereby only unmarried or widowed daughters of deceased government employees could be considered as eligible for appointment on compassionate grounds.
The petitioner's contention was that the aforesaid provision was in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution as per which the state must not deny to any person the right to equality before law nor should there be any discrimination on the basis of religion, caste, sex or birth.

The petitioner had sought to buttress her contention with the argument that since married sons were not deemed ineligible for appointment on compassionate grounds, the denial of the facility to married daughters was "discriminatory".
It was contended by the state counsel that a daughter, on marriage, became "a member of her in-laws' family", was "taken care of by the husband" and hence "excluded from the dependency of her father".
The court, while directing the state government to file an affidavit explaining "the reasoning behind excluding married daughters", fixed December 4 as the next date of hearing in the matter.