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Kulsum Nisha v. State of U.P.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 617Decided 2 Jun 2026
C.A. No.-007667 - 2025
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Alok Aradhe

Background

The appellant's mother held a government-allotted "fair price shop" (a ration shop under the public distribution system) in a village in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. After her mother died, the appellant: a married daughter who had continued living in the family home and had become the sole earning member supporting her four sisters, including one who is visually impaired: applied to take over the shop as a dependent. Her application was rejected solely because a UP government order defined "family" eligible for such compassionate appointment to exclude "married daughters," a rejection upheld by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, the Deputy Commissioner, and eventually the Allahabad High Court (though the High Court itself flagged the issue as one of general constitutional importance given conflicting High Court views nationally).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that excluding married daughters from the definition of dependent "family" members eligible for compassionate appointment violated the constitutional guarantees of equality (Article 14) and non-discrimination (Article 15(1)), because marital status bears no rational connection to actual financial dependency, which is the true purpose of the welfare scheme. Interpreting the government order purposively, the Court held that the word "daughters" must be read to include a married daughter who can prove she is actually dependent on the deceased dealer, is a local resident, and meets the other eligibility conditions, rather than being automatically excluded merely for being married. The Court expressly approved the contrary High Court decisions (from Allahabad's own Vimla Srivastava case, and from Bombay, Karnataka, and Calcutta) that had already rejected such exclusion, and overruled the Allahabad High Court's own prior decisions (Saida Begum and Smt. Kusumlata) that had upheld it. Finding that the appellant met all the practical eligibility criteria, the Court quashed the rejection orders and directed the authorities to allot her the shop within four weeks.

Lesson Learnt

A government welfare or compassionate-appointment scheme cannot deny benefits to an eligible woman purely because she is married: such a rule amounts to unconstitutional gender-based discrimination, and courts will read "dependency," not marital status, as the real test for eligibility.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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