This news piece is based on ‘Biased: Karnataka HC quashes Sainik Welfare Board norm’ published in the Indian Express on January 05, 2023.  

Why in News?  

Recently the Karnataka High Court has quashed a Sainik Welfare Board guideline that barred married daughters from availing dependent cards available to children of ex-defence personnel. The Court ruled out that the married daughter remains the daughter in the same manner as a married son remains a son. The act of marriage cannot and shall not change the status of a daughter.  

Background  

Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka HC issued the orders in the course of hearing a plea filed by the 31-year-old daughter of a former army man Subedar Ramesh Khandappa Patil who was killed while clearing mines during Operation Parakram in the year 2001.  

Priyanka Patil was 10 years old when her father died and she approached the Karnataka HC in 2001 over a refusal by the Sainik Welfare Board to issue a dependent card to her on the grounds that she was married and dependent cards can be issued only to unmarried daughters.  

The Karnataka HC after considering the positions taken by the Constitutional Courts in cases where discrimination was alleged against married daughters and ruled that discrimination on the basis of gender is ‘violative of Article 14’ of the Constitution of India.