IMPORTANT POINT
Compassionate appointments are not a source of recruitment and must be pursued without delay, as their purpose is to alleviate immediate financial distress for families of deceased employees.

JUDGMENT :

N. UNNI KRISHNAN NAIR, J.

Heard Mr. Tapan Deuri, learned counsel for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. Dilip Mazumdar, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, assisted by Mr. R. Dhar, learned Addl. Senior Government Advocate, appearing on behalf of all the respondents.

2. The petitioner, herein, by way of instituting this present proceeding, has prayed for a direction upon the respondent authorities for placing her case before the Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup(M), Guwahati, for consideration of her case for appointment on compassionate ground.

3. At the outset, it is to be noted that the petitioner, herein, has projected in the writ petition, that she is a specially abled person being completely deaf and dumb since her birth and in this connection, has relied upon an Identity Card issued by the District Social Welfare Officer, Dhemaji, on 04.11.1999.

4. It is further projected in the writ petition that the father of the petitioner Late Janarddan Sharma while working as Sub-Engineer, Grade-I, in the Office of the Executive Engineer(Design) Division at Chandmari, Guwahati, Water Resource Department, had died-in-harness on 04.05.2013. After the death of her father, the mother of the petitioner had submitted an application on 22.08.2014, before the Chief Engineer, Water Resource Department, Chandmari, Guwahati, praying for appointment of the petitioner, herein, on compassionate ground.

5. It is the case of the petitioner that inspite of having submitted the application which was complete in all respects, her case for appointment on compassionate ground, was not placed before the jurisdictional District Level Committee and accordingly, she came to be denied an opportunity to have her case so considered for appointment on compassionate ground.

6. Being aggrieved, the petitioner has instituted the present proceeding before this Court.

7. Mr. Deuri, learned counsel for the petitioner, has reiterated the facts as noticed hereinabove and has submitted that the petitioner is entitled to have her case considered for appointment on compassionate ground, more so, when she being a specially abled person since her birth, would not be in a position to sustain herself without being supported by the State and such support, it is mandated, is to be provided by extending to the petitioner an appointment on compassionate ground.

8. Per contra, Mr. Mazumdar, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, appearing for the State Respondents, has submitted that the case of the petitioner was rejected by the District Level Committee on the ground that the application as submitted seeking her compassionate appointment, was so submitted on her behalf after the expiry of the period so prescribed for the purpose.

9. Mr. Mazumdar, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, has further submitted that the father of the petitioner had died-in-harness on 04.05.2013. However, the application claiming appointment on compassionate ground in respect of the petitioner, herein, was filed after a period of more than 1(one) year i.e. on 22.08.2014, and accordingly, the District Level Committee although had considered the case of the petitioner in its meetings held on 04.06.2015, 01.03.2016, and 14.11.2017, had rejected her case on the ground of delay occasioning in preferring the application claiming appointment on compassionate ground.

10. Mr. Mazumdar, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, has also submitted that the immediacy for effecting appointment on compassionate ground insofar as the petitioner is concerned, has lost its force. The learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, has relied upon the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court rendered in the case of State of W.B. v. Debabrata Tiwari & ors. [reported in (2023) SCC Online SC 219 ] and has further contended that in terms thereof; the delay so occasioning, has re