Child born out of Second Wedlock also entitled to Compassionate Appointment, Read High Court Judgement

May 17, 2019:

The Karnataka High Court has ruled that children born of second marriages are also entitled to compassionate employment.

Justice R Devdas ruled this while dealing with a petition filed by one Lohit Gowda who had filed an application for compassionate employment with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) after his father, a former employee of the BDA, had passed away.

The BDA had rejected his application on the ground that Lohit was born out of his father’s second marriage.

Justice Devdas observed that the Supreme Court has already ruled that such like compassionate employment cannot be denied to an applicant merely because he was born out of a second marriage.

The Apex Court in Union of India v. VR Tripathi CIVIL APPEAL No.12015 OF 2018  decided on 11.12.2018 had observed that even excluding children born out of void marriages from the benefits of compassionate employment would be “deeply offensive to their dignity and is offensive to the constitutional guarantee against discrimination.” 

The Division Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah had also noted that the law had intended that children born out of second marriages be treated as legitimate-

“Having regard to the purpose and object of a scheme of compassionate appointment, once the law has treated such children as legitimate, it would be impermissible to exclude them from being considered for compassionate appointment. Children do not choose their parents…”

In the light of the Ruling off Apex Court the Karnataka High Court has also ruled now that a person cannot be denied employment on compassionate grounds merely on account of being born out of a second wedlock.

As a result Lohit Gowda’s writ petition was allowed and the BDA was directed to reconsider Gowda’s application, examine whether he was otherwise eligible for the job, and pass an appropriate order in accordance with law.