New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to pay Rs.12 lakh in compensation to a Haryana woman who was denied a helper's job at an LPG bottling plant in 1988 because the company considered the work of carrying gas cylinders unsuitable for women.

"It is an affront to womanhood and that too by a Government of India undertaking," a bench of justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi said, pulling up the government entity for "disrespecting" women.

As the woman had attained the age of 63, well beyond the age of superannuation, the court noted that she had litigated for decades and directed IOC to pay a lump sum of Rs.12 lakh in compensation.

"Day in and day out, when men are not at home, it...