In the matter of National Legal Services Authority v. Union
of India Manu/SC/0309/2014 : (2014) 5 SCC 438, the Supreme Court recognized that gender identity,
is an integral part of sex within the meaning of Articles 15 and
16 of the Constitution of India and no citizen can be
discriminated on the ground of gender. The Supreme Court
observed as follows:
“We, therefore, conclude that discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
includes any discrimination, exclusion, restriction
or preference, which has the effect of nullifying
or transposing equality by the law or the equal
protection of laws guaranteed under our
Constitution, and hence we are inclined to give
various directions to safeguard the constitutional
rights of the members of the TG community.”
34. Thus, from the aforesaid cases it is quite vivid that marriage is
a social circumstance and basic civil right of man and woman,
and marriage by itself is not a disqualification. A daughter
remains a daughter after her marriage and does not cease to
be a daughter of her father or mother. Thus, denial of
employment, included in the rehabilitation, to married daughter
of an affected family (land oustee) is gender-biased and
unreasonable and violative of Articles 14 & 15 of the
Constitution of India as well as Article 21, as rehabilitation of a
land oustee is logical corollary of Article 21 of the Constitution
of India.
HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR
Writ Petition (S) No.1762 of 2014
Smt. Sadhna Bai, V State of Chhattisgarh,
Hon'ble Shri Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal
Citation; AIR 2016(NOC)286 CHHAT
