Kathmandu, August 5:

The Supreme Court today said that government should respect the rights of the women and should be sensitive about providing equal wages to women who work on same posts as men.

Making public a full text judgement on a verdict pronounced one-and-a-half months ago, a division bench of justices Bala Ram KC and Kalyan Shrestha directed the government to be sensitive about the issue and ensure equal salary for both men and women working on same position and performing similar responsibilities.

Ramshakhi Kumari Mahato, assistant manager at Small Farmers and Cooperatives Limited, had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court five years ago after her employer increased her salary by Rs 300 and her male colleague’s by Rs 700. When Mahato presented a written note to her employer opposing the disparity in salary increase, her employer said that her resignation had been accepted. Mahato hadn’t tendered her resignation.

Reinstating Mahato’s job, the bench directed that this would be a discrimination to women. The bench also nullified the cooperative’s decision of approving her resignation which was never tendered.

Stating that the constitution and the the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) had ensured parity in salary for women with men, the bench said disparity in salary in the 21st century was sheer discrimination on women and a violation of the constitution and the international conventions.