JUDGMENT :

Smt. Priti Sharma, the petitioner, is the widow of the late Jaikrishna Bhardwaj, an Assistant Teacher with the DAV Inter College, Aligarh[hereinafter referred to as “the College”]. The College imparts education up to Class XII, and is recognised under the Uttar Pradesh Intermediate Education Act, 1921[for short “the Act of 1921”]. The College receives grant-in-aid from the State Government and managed by a private management.

2. There is little quarrel that the petitioner's husband, the late Jaikrishna Bhardwaj, was duly appointed to the post of Assistant Teacher in L.T. Grade with the College by the respondent-Management, through a letter of appointment dated 28.07.1995. This appointment was made on a short-term vacancy against a substantive post, on account of the permanent incumbent, Mahesh Chandra Kansal, being promoted ad-hoc to the post of a Lecturer with the College, on 02.09.1994. The appointment was, therefore, terminable, upon the joining of an incumbent selected by the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Services Selection Commission, or upon Mahesh Chandra Kansal joining back his substantive post, whichever be earlier. The appointment of the petitioner's husband was one made in accordance with Paragraph 2 of the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Services Commission (Removal of Difficulties) (Second) Order, 1981[for short “Removal of Difficulties (Second) Order”]. The petitioner's husband joined on 01.08.1995, and financial approval to his appointment was granted by a detailed order dated 13.05.1996, passed by the District Inspector of Schools[hereinafter referred to as “the DIOS”] pursuant to a direction by this Court made in Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 5327 of 1996 vide judgment and order dated 09.06.1996. That writ petition was instituted by the petitioner's husband. The order granting financial approval to the appointment of the petitioner's husband, made after examining its legality, became final and was not questioned either by the Management or revoked by the Education Authorities.

3. Mahesh Chandra Kansal retired from service on 30.06.1997, while serving as an ad-hoc Lecturer, but holding his lien on the post of L.T. Grade Teacher, to which the petitioner's husband was appointed, to fill up the short-term vacancy. It appears that upon retirement of Kansal, payment of salary to the petitioner's husband was stopped with effect from the month of July, 1997 on ground that the vacancy had turned into a substantive one. The petitioner's husband represented in the matter to the Education Authorities, including the Government. The Special Secretary to the Government, vide order dated 27.02.1999, and the Deputy Director of Education (Secondary-I), Directorate of Education, Lucknow, vide order dated 08.03.1999, issued directions to the effect that the petitioner's husband was entitled to continue, till a regularly selected candidate by the Commission/Selection Board joined. In compliance with the said order, the DIOS, Aligarh passed an order dated 11.05.1999, sanctioning payment of the petitioner's husband's salary, until a regularly selected candidate by the Commission/Board joined. The appointment was expressed to be purely temporary and in the L.T. Grade. This fact about approval of tenure for the petitioner's husband, until a regularly selected candidate joined, is admitted to the respondents. It is also admitted that on the strength of the aforesaid orders of the Education Authorities, the petitioner's late husband continued in service as an L.T. Grade Teacher, until his decease on 06.01.2012.

4. Shorn of unnecessary details, the petitioner, who is a dependent of the late Jaikrishna Bhardwaj, applied for compassionate appointment, inasmuch as Bhardwaj's untimely demise had plunged the family into a grave financial crisis. Again, eschewing recapitulation of all that litigation that the petitioner had to undertake to enforce a consideration of her claim to compassionate appointment, suffice it to say, that t