10.03.2025 Court No. 25 S.G. (p.a)

WPA 26327 of 2018 Bidyut Kumar Mandal Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Ekramul Bari, Mr. Sk. Imtiaj Uddin, … for the Petitioner.

Mr. Biswabrata Basu Mallick, …for the State (1) The subject matter of the instant writ petition is whether the writ petitioner is eligible for grant of compassionate appointment or not and the order of the Commissioner of School Education /respondent No.2, dated March 28, 2018, is under challenge in this case.

(2) Two sets of propositions govern the field. One as pronounced by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Sajal Kumar Mondal vs State of West Bengal reported in 1999 LAB.I.C 3405. The other as propounded by another Division Bench of this Court, on a slightly different fact situation, in the case of Gopal Mondal vs State of West Bengal & Others reported in (2012) 2 CHN 705. Gopal Mondal’s case (supra) has been relied on by Mr.Bari appearing for the petitioner.

(3) Necessary facts may be stated here in a nut-

shell. The petitioner’s father, an Assistant Teacher, had died in harness while in service, on March 21, 2012. He left behind his wife, two sons and a daughter as survivors and legal heirs. The first son, that is the writ petitioner, has applied for grant of appointment on compassionate ground in died-in-harness category, in place of his deceased father, vide his application dated April 19, 2014. The said application of the petitioner travelled from the office of the Sub-Inspector of Schools to the office of the Chairman, District Primary School Council on June 18, 2014 after being recommended for appointment by the S.I. of schools, Ratua, New Circle, Ratua, Malda. There it remained stranded till this Court intervened vide its order dated December 6, 2017 (in WP No. 28540 (w) of 2017) by directing that the proposal of appointment of the petitioner on compassionate ground, should be forwarded to the Commissioner of School Education/respondent No.2, for taking decision regarding according approval to compassionate appointment of the petitioner. The resultant order is that dated March 28, 2018, which is impugned in the present writ petition.

(4) The findings of the respondent No.2/Commissioner of School Education in the said impugned order dated March 28, 2018 may be summarised in the following manner. That the application for compassionate appointment was submitted by the petitioner after 2 years from the date of death of his father, on June 5, 2014. That the petitioner did not attend 18 years of age within 2 years from the date of death of his father, his date of birth being April 1, 1996. Therefore, within the permissible period for submission of his application for grant of compassionate appointment, the petitioner has been a minor and not eligible under the rules for applying for compassionate appointment. That since the necessary criteria as prescribed in the Rule 14(1) of the West Bengal Primary School Teachers Recruitment Rules, 2001 [published vide notification No.57-SE(Pry)dated January 15, 2002 and herein after referred to as the “said Rules”] has not been fulfilled in case of the writ petitioner, that up to the second year from the date of death of his father, he has been a minor and did not attend the prescribed 18 years of age to turn as a major person in accordance with law, the recommendation of him for appointment on compassionate ground could not be considered, for the reason of the failure of the petitioner to meet up the said essential criteria for such appointment.

(5) Therefore, the point for consideration in this writ petition is that if by relaxing the prescribed qualifying age for an applicant, as per the said rules, the petitioner can be considered for grant of compassionate appointment, as prayed for.

(6) As stated earlier, this Court has settled the law in this regard in the case of Sajal Kumar Mondal (supra). The Court while interpreting the rule 14 of the said Rules has held that when at the time of the death of the fathe