The Rajasthan High Court has ordered the appointment of a widow having four children, overruling the norm that limits the number of children to two for the appointment of a widow as a lecturer in the school education department.

The bench of Justice Samir Jain while disposing of the petition filed by Sunita Dhawan, a widow and mother of four children, held that if a widow mother with more than two children can be given an appointment on compassionate grounds, then why should a widow mother of four, who has qualified for the appointment on merit by clearing the recruitment examination for school lecturers conducted by the RPSC, be denied the job?

Advertisement

The petitioner, a widow and mother of two girls and two boys (one specially abled) from the Scheduled Caste category, secured merit in the school lecturer recruitment exam in 2018. However, she was denied a posting for being the mother of more than two children.

The judge held that given the petitioner’s responsibility to care for her four children, this court finds itself duty-bound to order her appointment in service. However, Justice Jain clarified that this should not be taken as a precedent.