Compassionate appointment is a concession granted under exceptional circumstances and cannot be claimed as a matter of right. Equal opportunity in public employment is a constitutional mandate, and compassionate appointments should be restricted in the interest of efficient public administration.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for the issuance of a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, after calling for the concerned records from the first respondent, quash the order of the first respondent dated 27.11.2013 bearing Letter No.23663/Pol.XV/2011-18 as illegal, arbitrary and contrary to law and consequently direct the respondents to appoint the petitioner on compassionate basis in the suitable post.)

1. The order of rejection dated 27.11.2013, rejecting the claim of the writ petitioner for compassionate appointment, is under challenge in the present writ petition.

2. The petitioner states that his mother Smt.B.Yasodha was working as Junior Assistant in the office of the third respondent- Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore and died on 14.04.1995. The father of the writ petitioner, at the time of the death of his mother, was working as Packer in Lakshmi Machine Works, Coimbatore. The petitioner states that on account of the sudden death of his mother, the family of the writ petitioner was in penurious circumstances and submitted an application seeking appointment on compassionate grounds. The said application was rejected by the first respondent in proceedings dated 27.11.2013. The reason for rejection of the application submitted by the writ petitioner was on the ground that the father of the writ petitioner was employed on the date of the death of the deceased employee i.e., the mother of the writ petitioner. Thus, the writ petitioner's family was not in indigent circumstances and accordingly, the application of the writ petitioner was rejected by the first respondent.

3. The scheme of compassionate appointment was introduced to mitigate the circumstances arising on account of sudden demise of the Government Employee. Compassionate appointment is not a regular appointment, nor an appointment under the constitutional scheme. It is a concession granted to the Government employees on certain exceptional circumstances. Thus, the compassionate appointment can never be claimed as a matter of right and only if a person is entitled under the terms and conditions, then alone the scheme can be extended, but not otherwise. Equal opportunity in public employment is a constitutional mandate. All appointments are to be made in accordance with the rules and by providing equal opportunity to participate in the process of selection.

4. As far as the compassionate appointments are concerned, no selection is conducted, no suitability or eligibility is tested, but persons are appointed merely based on death of an employee. Therefore, compassionate appointment is to be restricted in the interest of the efficient public administration. No doubt, the Government has also restricted the compassionate appointments and it is to be extended only to the deserving family and more so, after a lapse of many years. Providing compassionate appointment after a lapse of many years would not only defeat the purpose and object of the scheme, but also the penurious circumstances arose on account of the sudden death became vanished. Thus, the lapse of time is also a ground to reject the claim for compassionate appointment. Number of judgments are delivered by this Court and the Government has also issued revised instructions for providing compassionate appointment in G.O.(Ms) No.18, Labour and Employment (Q1) Department, dated 23.01.2020.

5. Even recently, the Honourable Supreme Court in the case of State of Uttar Pradesh and Others vs. Premlata [(2022) 1 SCC 30], has made observations in respect of implementation of the scheme of compassionate appointment and the relevant portion of the observations are extracted hereunder:

“8. While considering the issue involved in the present appeal, the law laid down by this Court on compassionate ground on the death of the deceased employee are required to be referred to and considered. In the recent decision, this Court in State of Karnataka vs. V.Somayashree [(202