Karnataka High Court: ‘Homemaker’ can be male or female
BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court defined that the word 'homemaker' is gender-neutral who can be male or female and additionally a working person, breadwinner or wage earner.
BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court defined that the word 'homemaker' is gender-neutral who can be male or female and additionally a working person, breadwinner or wage earner.
Article outline
- What happened
- The key numbers
- The details
- The bottom line
Key points
- While travelling with her family, she suffered injuries when a rashly driven KSRTC bus caused the accident, on October 19, 2013.
- The High Court is of the view that the claimant can be considered a homemaker, it continued.
- According to The KSRTC counsel, as per the claimant's version, she has done post-graduation and with such a high educational qualification, she cannot be regarded a homemaker.
- The word homemaker is gender-neutral and can be male or female.
Justice Chillakur Sumalatha passed the order, allowing partly an appeal filed in 2018 by Pampalal from West Bengal.The judge additionally enhanced the compensation granted by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal in 2018 to her by Rs 1.96 lakh.
Pampalal's counsel contended that if it is taken that the claimant was not working as a lecturer on the date on which the accident took place, taking her services as homemaker, compensation needs to be awarded.
According to The High Court, every woman who renders service to her family is liable to be regarded as a 'homemaker' irrespective of whether such a woman is holding a higher qualification.
It stated that to consider a woman a 'homemaker', it is not necessary to establish that she is illiterate or stays at home 24×7 or attends only to household work. The word homemaker is gender-neutral and can be male or female.
Notably, the High Court is of the view that the claimant can be considered a homemaker, it continued. Taking the notional income of the claimant as Rs 8, 000, the court remarked she could have taken bed rest at least for three months.The financial loss for those three months comes to Rs 24, 000.
In practice, the total sum she is entitled to, along with the sum awarded by the Tribunal, is Rs 1.96 lakh, with the interest at the rate of 6% per annum.
Taken together, the developments around karnataka High Court: 'Homemaker' can be male or female point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.
