New Delhi, Sept. 18 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to pay Rs.12 lakh compensation to a Haryana woman who was denied a job as a helper because the oil company considered the work of carrying LPG cylinders unsuitable for women.

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

The court passed the order after noting that Sumitra, a Scheduled Caste woman from Karnal, had turned 63, well beyond the age of superannuation, and had spent more than three decades litigating her claim.

The woman had applied for a helper's job when an LPG bottling ...