Compassionate appointments are exceptions to general recruitment rules, aimed at providing immediate relief to families facing financial hardship due to the death of the sole breadwinner, subject to strict eligibility criteria.

JUDGMENT :

Ajay Bhanot, J.

1. By the impugned order date 24.07.2023, the competent authority has rejected the claim of the petitioner for grant of appointment on compassionate ground.

2. The admitted facts of the case are these. The husband of the petitioner was an employee in the respondent Bank. He died on 17.11.2022. The last drawn gross salary of the deceased was 1,18,800.14/-

3. By the impugned order dated 24.07.2023 the claim of the petitioner for grant of appointment on compassionate grounds has been declined on the following footing:

"7.3 Financial Condition of the family:

The family is indigent and deserves immediate assistance for relief from financial destitution. The following guidelines should be taken into account for determining the financial condition/ eligibility for compassionate appointment of dependents of the family:

Compassionate Appointment will be sanctioned to the dependents of the deceased/premature retired employees where the monthly income of the family will be less than 75% of the last drawn gross salary."

4. Heard Sri Raghav Arora, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Pankaj Srivastava, learned counsel for the respondent.

5. Appointments to public posts, government services and to various instrumentalities of the State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India are governed and regulated by comprehensive provisions contained in the Constitution. The constitutional scheme envisages an open recruitment and a transparent procedure which enables maximum participation from all the eligible segments of the citizenry at large. The final appointments are made after a fair selection based on competitive merit. While making the said appointments the reservation policy or affirmative action under the Constitution for representation and empowerment of backward classes, SCs/STs and other sections of the society identified as per law have to be duly adhered to. The recruitment and appointment to government services and government undertakings were examined by constitutional Courts in the context of Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Holdings of the constitutional Courts have irretrievably entrenched the aforesaid modes and procedures for appointments to posts in the government and Article 12 instrumentalities in the body of the constitutional law.

6. The compassionate ground appointments to the contrary are not made through a transparent and public process of recruitment after inviting the applications from the open market. The appointments on compassionate ground entail deviation from regular processes of recruitment and other relaxations as well. Appointments under the Dying-in- Harness Rules, 1974, are an exception to the aforesaid constitutionally mandated scheme for appointments to posts in the government and in government undertakings. Compassionate appointments emanate from specific service rules holding the field and rationalized by service law jurisprudence evolved by Constitutional Courts.

7. The appointments on compassionate ground passed the test of constitutional validity by a slender margin. The sole justification to make compassionate ground appointments is that the dependants of the deceased employee face unforeseen financial destitution after the death of the latter and need u