New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI) Compassionate appointments in government jobs cater to a very specific exigency and cannot be sought long after the breadwinner of a family dies, the Delhi High Court has said.
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bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla was hearing a man's plea seeking appointment on compassionate grounds. His father was a constable in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) when he died.
The high court order of July 30 noted the petitioner's counsel hadn't shown any executive instruction, rule or regulation, enabling the petitioner to seek an appointment 18 years after the death of his father.
The petitioner's father Vijay Kumar Yadav had died in harness in September 1988.
In February 2000, Yadav's wife applied to the authorities seeking a compassionate appointment but her plea was rejected for want of the requisite qualification for the constable's post.
In February 2018, the petitioner and his mother once again applied to the authorities seeking compassionate appointment for him.
His counsel submitted that the petitioner attained the age of majority in 2014, but was not possessed of the requisite qualification for the post at that time and applied in 2018 after acquiring the requisite qualification.
In January 2020, the petitioner was informed that he had not been recommended for compassionate appointment after which he approached the court seeking the relief.
The bench said compassionate appointment was neither a right which continued in perpetuity till purged nor "an alternative mode of recruitment".
The order said, "Compassionate appointment is intended to enable a family of a government servant who dies in harness to tide over the immediately indigent circumstances in which it may find itself. It is well settled that compassionate appointment is not an alternative mode of recruitment," the court said.
The bench continued, "It caters to a very specific exigency, which dies with efflux of time. Compassionate appointment cannot, therefore, be sought long after the bread winner of a family dies. It is not a right which continues in perpetuity till purged."
The bench said the authorities which decide on appointments had to satisfy themselves with the fact that the death of the breadwinner leads the family in distress and it can't fend for itself, prompting the need for an immediate succour. PTI SKV SKV AMK
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