TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2003 (9) TMI 832
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....olative of Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. That judgment is challenged by filing this appeal. 3. For this purpose, the High Court interpreted Rules 5, 8 and 10 of the Punjab University Calendar Volume -- III. which are as under:-- "Rule 5. The Principal of a women's college shall be lady who shall possess at least Master's Degree in 1st or 2nd Class or an equivalent degree with experience of teaching in a college. This rule shall not apply to Women's colleges whose men or women Principals have already been approved. Provided that on their retirement a qualified lady Principal shall be appointed. Rule 8. As far as possible, ladies shall be appointed as teachers. In case a qualified lady teacher in a particular subject is not available, the college authorities may appoint a man teacher with the prior approval of the Vice Chancellor. A man teacher so appointed shall not be confirmed by the management in his post and he shall be replaced as soon as a suitable qualified lady teacher is available. Rule 10. The College shall have a hostel in or near the premises of the college. It shall be under the charge of a whole time Woman Superintend....
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....lt to hold that rules empowering the authority to appoint only a lady Principal or a lady teacher or a lady doctor or a woman Superintendent are violative of Articles 14 or 16 of the Constitution. 6. Secondly, such reservation by the State is permissible in exercise of powers conferred under Article 15(3), which provides thus:-- "15. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.--(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children." POLICY DECISION OF RESERVATION FOR FEMALES AND RIGHT TO EQUALITY: 7. In the judgment per majority, the High Court after considering the duties which are required to be performed by the Principal of School observed thus:-- "Keeping in view the nature of the duties which are required to be performed by the Principal in relation to the girl students it cannot be deduced that such students could be subjected to any sort of exploitation. For dealing with the students, the Head of the Department has equal and similar powers as are conferred upon the Principal, which if misused may result in disastrous consequences." 8. It is diffi....
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....h propounds the right of equality under Article 14 after considering various decisions. In that case, constitutional validity of Regulation 46(i)(c) of Air India Employees' Service Regulations was challenged, which provides for retiring age of an Air-Hostess. The Court (in paragraph 39) summarized thus:-- "Thus, from a detailed analysis and close examination of the cases of this Court starting from 1952 till today, the following propositions emerge: (1) In considering the fundamental right of equality of opportunity a technical, pedantic or doctrinaire approach should not be made and the doctrine should not be invoked even if different scales of pay, service terms, leave, etc., are introduced in different or dissimilar posts. Thus, where the class or categories of service are essential different in purport and spirit. Article 14 cannot be attracted. (2) Article 14 forbids, hostile discrimination but not reasonable classification. Thus, where persons belonging to a particular class in view of their special attributes, qualities, mode of recruitment and the like, are differently treated in public interest to advance and boost members belonging to bac....
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....dul Aziz v. The State of Bombay and Husseinbhoy Laljee [1954] 1 SCR 930 and referred to Article 15(3) which provides that nothing in the Article shall prevent the State from making special provisions for women and held thus:-- "It was argued that Clause (3) should be confined to provisions which are beneficial to women and cannot be used to give them a licence to commit and abet crimes. We are unable to read any such restriction into the clause; nor are we able to agree that a provision which prohibits punishment is tantamount to a licence to commit the offence of which punishment has been prohibited. Article 14 is general and must be read with the other provisions, which set out the ambit of fundamental rights. Sex is a sound classification and although there can be no discrimination in general on that ground, the Constitution itself provides far special provisions in the case of women and children. The two articles read together validate the impugned clause in Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code." b) In Dattatraya Motiram More v. State of Bombay AIR 1953 Bom 311 provisions of the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act 1925 which reserved seats for women in the electi....
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....post. This claim made by the petitioners cannot be accepted. The institutions which are headed by Lady Superintendents are exclusively for women, and it is for the Government to decide as a matter of policy whether or not such institutions should be headed by only lady officers. Merely because at some stage there is a common cadre in which the officers of both the sexes are appointed, does not mean that all posts in the higher cadre must also be filled in by persons belonging to both the sexes. Having regard to the nature of duties to be performed, it is open to the State Government to decide that the institutions which are exclusively meant for women should be headed by only women or lady officers. The Government cannot be compelled to appoint male officers to head such institutions, if it does not consider it advisable to do so. If a special provision is made for women, the petitioners cannot made grievance that they have been discriminated against. Incidentally it may be pointed out that Article 15 of the Constitution of India prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Clause (3) of the said Article however, provides "Nothing in....