IMPORTANT POINT
Compassionate appointments must be made promptly to address financial distress; significant delays render claims stale and ineligible for consideration.

JUDGMENT :

N. UNNI KRISHNAN NAIR, J.

None appears for the petitioner, on call. However, Mr. Dilip Mazumdar, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, assisted by Mr. R. Dhar, learned Addl. Senior Government Advocate, are present on behalf of all the respondents.

2. The petitioner, herein, by way of instituting the present proceeding, has presented a challenge to the decision arrived at by the jurisdictional District Level Committee in its meeting held on 09.07.2019, by which, the case of the petitioner for appointment on compassionate ground, came to be rejected on the ground that the application so submitted by him was not received in time and the same had spent its force on expiry of 2 years from the date the said application was so preferred by the petitioner.

3. As projected in the writ petition, the father of the petitioner Late Samsur Uddin Choudhury, while working as an Assistant Fitter in the establishment of the Executive Engineer, Silchar Mechanical Division(Irrigation), Irrigation, Silchar, had died-in-harness on 26.01.2004. The petitioner in pursuance of the death of his father in harness, submitted an application on 10.06.2004, praying for consideration of his case for appointment on compassionate ground. The case of the petitioner was placed before the jurisdictional District Level Committee in its meeting held on 23.07.2010. However, the jurisdictional District Level Committee in the absence of any vacant post, did not consider the case of the petitioner for appointment on compassionate ground favourably. The petitioner, thereafter, approached this Court by way of instituting a writ petition being WP(c)7392/2013. This Court, vide order, dated 18.12.2013, disposed of the said writ petition by directing the respondent authorities to place the case of the petitioner in the next meeting of the jurisdictional District Level Committee.

4. It is also projected in the writ petition that the case of the petitioner was, thereafter, considered by the jurisdictional District Level Committee in its meeting held on 09.06.2014. However, no favourable recommendation was made in favour of the petitioner, herein, for appointment on compassionate ground. It is further projected in the writ petition that the case of the petitioner for appointment on compassionate ground was again considered by the jurisdictional District Level Committee in its meeting held on 09.07.2019, and therein, the case of the petitioner was rejected on the ground that the application so submitted by him, was not received in time and further, the said application had also lost its force on 2 years having elapsed since the date, the said application was so preferred by the petitioner, herein.

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

6. Mr. Mazumdar, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, appearing for the State Respondents, has submitted that the case of the petitioner was rejected by the jurisdictional District Level Committee in its meeting held on 09.07.2019 on the ground that the application so submitted by the petitioner for appointment on compassionate ground, was not received in time and the same had lost its force on the expiry of 2 years from the date of when the same was so preferred by the petitioner, herein.

7. Mr. Mazumdar, learned Addl. Advocate General, Assam, has further submitted that the father of the petitioner had died-in-harness on 26.01.2004. The 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 ter