HC dismisses appeal seeking appointment on compassionate grounds

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed an appeal preferred by a man from Pudukkottai district against a Single Bench order that had rejected his petition seeking appointment on compassionate grounds.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed an appeal preferred by a man from Pudukkottai district against a Single Bench order that had rejected his petition seeking appointment on compassionate grounds.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by B. Suga Solai Raja. His father G. Balasubramanian was working as a Block Development Officer in Aranthangi panchayat union in Pudukkottai district when he died in 2016. His mother had died in 2014. Mr. Raja and his sisters were finding it difficult to make ends meet, he said.

At the time of his father’s death, Mr. Raja was a minor. His application seeking appointment on compassionate grounds was rejected on the grounds that he had not attained the age of majority. His second application which was submitted after attaining the age of majority was also rejected on the grounds that the application was not made within three years from the date of the death of his father. Challenging the same, he had filed a writ petition.

The Single Bench dismissed the petition and held that the scheme of compassionate appointment was to be implemented strictly. The writ petitioner could not claim appointment as a matter of right. He preferred an appeal against the Single Bench order.

A Division Bench of Justices R. Suresh Kumar and G. Arul Murugan observed that the application was submitted after three years and the terms under compassionate appointment scheme mandated that any application seeking compassionate appointment had to be filed within three years.

Compassionate appointment was provided under a scheme by which the government provided employment to a member of a deceased employee’s family who died while in service only to enable the family to tide over the sudden loss considering the penurious circumstances of the family at that time due to the death of the employee, the court observed.

Compassionate appointment was not a vested right and the application seeking compassionate appointment could not be made after a long delay, which was not the purpose for which the scheme was provided. As per a government order, any application seeking appointment on compassionate grounds should be submitted within three years from the date of death of the government servant. The issue regarding submitting the application within the specified period of three years was settled by a Full Bench of the court, the court observed.