JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Mr. T.B. Jamir, learned Senior Addl. Advocate General, Nagaland for the appellants as well as Mr. S. Temjen, learned counsel for the respondent/writ petitioner.

2. This intra-Court appeal is directed against the Order dated 26.02.2020 passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in WP(C) No. 198/2019 whereby the State appellants have been directed to appoint the petitioner on compassionate ground within a period of 2 (two) months from the date of receipt of a copy of the order in accordance with the Office Memorandum dated 17.09.2015, which is a scheme for making compassionate appointment under the State Government.

3. Brief facts of the case essential for disposal of the instant appeal may be noticed at the outset.

4. The case of the petitioner is that her father, who was working as Agriculture Field Assistant in the District Agriculture Office, Mokokchung died in harness on 12.04.2010. After the death of her father, she submitted an application for compassionate appointment on 05.05.2010 to the Director of Agriculture Department. Thereafter, on 09.04.2018, she again submitted a similar application. As her case was not considered, she filed WP(C) No. 230(K)/2018 and the same was disposed of by this Court on 22.11.2018 by directing the writ petitioner to submit a fresh application alongwith the requisite documents within a period of 2 (two) weeks and on receipt of the same, the Director of Agriculture Department, Govt. of Nagaland should take necessary steps for considering her application at the earliest and not later than 3 (three) months from the date of the order, as per the relevant rules.

5. The writ petitioner accordingly submitted a fresh application before the Director of Agriculture. Thereafter, vide Communication dated 09.07.2019, the Addl. Director, Agriculture Department informed the petitioner's counsel that on the basis of the Office Memorandum dated 17.09.2015, the Department was maintaining a list of candidates for compassionate appointment in chronological order and that the petitioner was placed at Serial No. 11 in the list. As such, the Department could not appoint her as on the date of the Communication but she will be considered as per the scheme as and when her turn comes. Being aggrieved with the response of the Department, the petitioner approached this Court again by filing WP(C) No. 198(K)/2019 seeking a direction to the respondent authorities to appoint her on compassionate ground in accordance with the relevant compassionate scheme without further delay since the respondent authorities has exceedingly made appointments to Grade-III and Grade-IV posts in the Department, without giving due reservations and percentage for compassionate appointment. The learned Single Judge, thereafter, vide the impugned Order dated 26.02.2020 disposed of the writ petition by directing the respondent authorities to appoint the petitioner on compassionate ground within a period of 2 (two) months from the date of the order, as already stated herein above. Thus being aggrieved, the official respondents as appellants have filed the instant writ appeal.

6. Mr. T.B. Jamir, the learned Senior Addl. Advocate General submits that the learned Single Judge could not have directed the appellants to appoint the writ petitioner on compassionate ground without taking into consideration other eligible persons who are similarly placed and are senior to the writ petitioner in the list of applicants for appointment on compassionate ground. The learned State Counsel further submits that since the writ petitioner submitted her application for compassionate appointment only after the earlier writ petition i.e., WP(C) No. 230(K)/2018 was disposed of on 22.11.2018, the application of the petitioner has to be considered only from that date. However, the learned Single Judge has taken into consideration the application submitted by the petitioner in the year 2010. The learned Single Judge accordingly came to the finding that 6