Compassionate appointments are exceptions to standard recruitment processes, necessitating strict adherence to defined financial criteria to ensure only those in genuine need receive such appointments.

JUDGMENT :

Ajay Bhanot, J.

1. Heard Shri Abnish Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner, Shri Ajay Kumar Gautam, learned counsel for the Union of India and Shri Ashok Kumar Lal, learned counsel for the respondent Bank of Baroda.

2. The admitted facts of the case are these. The father of the petitioner was an employee in the respondent Bank. He died on 27.04.2023. The last drawn gross salary of the deceased was 1,17,479/-.

3. By the impugned order dated 31.08.2024 the claim of the petitioner for grant of appointment on compassionate grounds has been declined on the following footing:

"The income of the family is more than the stipulation i.e. 60% of the last drawn gross salary of the deceased."

4. Heard learned counsel for the parties.

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 urgent succour. Compassionate appointments are provided to the family to immediately tide over the sudden financial crisis so caused by the death of the employee. This feature alone constituted the kin of a deceased employee into one class and on this sole footing the rationale of compassionate ground appointments was justified by Constitutional Courts.

8. The sole purpose of grant of appointment on compassionate ground is to enable the family to tied over the immediate financial crises resulting from the death of the sole earning member of the family. Determination of the financial condition and the nature of financial crises being faced by the family is thus a mandatory pre condition for appointment on compassionate grounds.

9. The aforesaid preconditions have been grafted in the Scheme for Compassionate Appointments of Payment of Ex gratia Financial Relief to dependants of deceased employees on Compassionate Grounds, 2022 takes account of this fact in clause 5 of the said scheme. The provision being relevant is extracted hereinunder:

"5.1. Monthly Family Income:

The application for Compassionate Appointment/Ex-Gr