Service Law – Compassionate appointment – Married daughter, if entitled to – Father died in harness – Mother appointed on compassionate ground, also died while in service – Elder married daughter made application for seeking appointment on compassionate ground, rejected – Thereafter, respondent-younger married daughter’s application for appointment on compassionate ground was also rejected – Tribunal directed appellants to appoint respondent on compassionate ground – Order confirmed by High Court – On appeal, held : Compassionate appointment is an exception to the general rule of appointment in the public services – In such cases, out of pure humanitarian consideration in view of the fact the fact that unless some source of livelihood is provided, the family would not be able to make both ends meet, a provision is made in the rules to provide gainful employment to one of the dependants of the deceased who may be eligible for such employment – Respondent being a married daughter cannot be said to be dependent on the deceased employee, i.e., her mother – Even otherwise, she is not entitled to appointment on compassionate ground after seven years from the death of the deceased employee – Tribunal as well as the High Court committed serious error in directing the appointment of the respondent on compassionate ground – Order of the Tribunal and that of the High Court set aside – Constitution of India – Arts.14, 16.
Service Law – Compassionate appointment – Object of – Held : Object of granting compassionate employment is to enable the family to tide over the sudden crisis – Object is not to give such family a post much less a post held by the deceased – In the present case, appointing respondent-a married daughter on compassionate ground will be contrary to its object.
Service Law – Appointment on compassionate ground, an exception – Constitution of India – Arts.14, 16 – Held : For all the government vacancies equal opportunity should be provided to all aspirants as mandated u/Arts. 14 and 16 – However, appointment on compassionate ground offered to a dependent of a deceased employee is an exception to the said norms – Compassionate ground is a concession and not a right.
Director of Treasuries in Karnataka and Anr. v. V. Somyashree (2021) SCC Online SC 704; State of Himachal Pradesh and Anr. v. Shashi Kumar (2019) 3 SCC 653 : [2019] 2 SCR 432 – relied on.
N. C. Santhosh v. State of Karnataka (2020) 7 SCC
617 : [2020] 3 SCR 1177; Govind Prakash Verma v. LIC (2005) 10 SCC 289 – referred to.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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