Exclusion of ex-servicemen's married daughters from ID cards unconstitutional: HC

The exclusion of married daughters for granting identity (ID) cards to dependants of ex-servicemen in terms of guideline 5 (c) of the Guidelines is violative of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, the High Court of Karnataka has ruled.

Justice M Nagaprasanna said this while directing the authorities to issue an ID card to Priyanka R Patil, the daughter of an ex-serviceman.

The petitioner’s father was in the Indian Army and had succumbed to an explosion of a land mine in December 2001 after serving for 22 years. He had two children, both daughters.

Priyanka applied for the post of assistant professor in August 2021 and approached the deputy director of Zilla Sainik Welfare Board for the issuance of a dependant ID card to demonstrate that she is the ward of an ex-serviceman. The board declined by citing the guidelines which stipulate that ID cards cannot be issued to married daughters.

The court said that if the act of marriage does not change the status of the son, the act of marriage cannot and shall not change the status of the daughter. It further said that the guideline portrays discrimination on the basis of gender and cannot be permitted to remain.

“If the ex-servicemen had sons, marriage would not have made any difference. It is, for this reason, the guideline falls foul of the tenets of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The guideline is a depiction of gender stereotypes which existed decades ago, and if permitted to remain would be an anachronistic obstacle in the march towards women’s equality,” the court said.

The court said that the word used in the nomenclature of the guidelines is ex-servicemen. Hence, it is for the union or the state government to address this imperative need for changing the nomenclature wherever it depicts 'ex-servicemen' to that of 'ex-service personnel', the court said.

"..Therefore, women have a role to play in the Forces, be it the Army, the Navy or the Air force. These are not the times when women have no role to play at all. Therefore, the word 'men' in the title, a part of the word ex-servicemen, would seek to demonstrate a misogynous posture of an age-old masculine culture. Therefore, the title wherever reads as ex-servicemen in the annals of the policy-making of the Government, be it the Union or the State concerned, should be made “Gender neutral”," the court said.