SC to examine whether married daughter's son can claim compassionate employment benefits

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine whether the son of a married daughter can be considered eligible for compassionate or rehabilitation employment under government schemes, days after ruling that a dependent married daughter is entitled to compassionate employment following the death of her parent in service.

According to a report by The Times of India (TOI), a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and V Mohan sought a response from the Chhattisgarh government on a petition filed by Ankit Pandey, who challenged the state's refusal to provide him employment under a rehabilitation scheme for project-affected families.

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Pandey approached the court after his grandparents, who were beneficiaries under the state's compassionate rehabilitation policy for project-affected persons, submitted an affidavit supporting his claim for employment.

As per the scheme, a project-affected family includes the landowner's spouse, children, dependent parents, widowed mother or sister, and unmarried daughter. However, the policy does not include a married daughter or her children within the definition of a family member eligible for employment benefits.

The issue of a married daughter's eligibility was recently addressed by the Supreme Court, which held that a dependent married daughter could be considered for compassionate benefits. In that case, the court directed authorities to allot a fair price shop to a married daughter after the death of her mother, who had previously held the allotment.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Abhinav Shrivastava argued that the Chhattisgarh government had earlier granted employment to another individual in a similar situation.

He said his client was identically placed and argued that the state has a policy where they include the daughter's son to be part of the family, TOI reported.

Shrivastava also informed the bench that the state had provided an appointment to one Suryadeep Tiwari, the son of a daughter of another project-affected person, under similar circumstances.

Taking note of the submissions, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Chhattisgarh government and directed it to file its response within four weeks, according to the TOI report.

(With inputs from TOI)