Children born to a second wife of a deceased employee are entitled to compassionate appointment, regardless of the marriage's validity, as established by judicial precedents.

ORDER 

PER: HON’BLE MR. VARUN SINDHU KUL KAUMUDI, ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER

1. The present Original Application has been filed by the applicant under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, seeking the following relief:

“.... to quash and set aside Respondent No.4 impugned Lt.No.SCR/P- SC/122/ACG/158/2012, order, dated 31.01.2022 and direct the respondent to consider the case of the applicant son Mr.Reddy Kumar for appointment under compassionate grounds on strength of Law laid down by the Hon’ble High Court of Telangana / Bombay, Supreme Court on the subject and pass such other order / orders as this Hon’ble Tribunal deems fit and proper in the interest of principles of Natural Justice.”

2. The facts of the case, in a nutshell, as submitted by the applicant, are as follows:

i. The applicant is the 2nd wife of the deceased Railway employee, late Swamy Komariah @ Reddy Swamy, who died in harness, on 14.01.2010. After the death of the Railway employee, there were rival claims between the applicant and the widowed daughter, G.Sarala, born to the first wife of the deceased, in regard to settlement of dues of the late Railway employee. As per the instructions of the respondents, the applicant and G.Sarala approached the Competent Court of Law, by filing O.P.521 of 2010, for obtaining succession certificate. The said OP was disposed of, declaring the applicant and G.Sarala as successors of late Reddy Komaraiah. Consequently, the applicant submitted a representation, requesting to appoint her son, Mr.Reddy Kumar, on compassionate grounds, and also to release the family pension in her favour, as she is the legally wedded wife of the late employee. While so, the widowed daughter, G.Sarala, approached this Tribunal in OA.No.1330 of 2012, praying for grant of family pension and also to consider her for compassionate appointment. During the pendency of the said OA, the applicant and G.Sarala came forward with a Compromise Deed, dt.03.08.2015, and G.Sarala gave an NOC for compassionate appointment to the applicant’s son, Sri Reddy Kumar. Consequently, the said OA was disposed of with a direction to the respondents to conduct a detailed enquiry into the matter and take a decision to sanction family pension to the eligible heir of the late Railway employee and also to consider the matter of grant of compassionate appointment to an eligible family member, in accordance with rules.

ii. In compliance with the said order, respondents conducted a detailed enquiry and decided to pay family pension to the applicant herein, treating her as the legally wedded wife of the deceased employee and rejected the request made for compassionate appointment to the applicant’s son, holding that, as per Serial Circular No.5/92, the ward of the second wife of the deceased employee cannot be considered for appointment under the rules for compassionate appointment. Respondents also rejected the case of G.Sarala, widowed daughter of the deceased employee, on the ground that she does not possess the minimum educational qualification for appointment on compassionate grounds.

iii. The applicant has further submitted that the Railway Board, vide letter, dt.30.12.2019 (RBE No.218/2019) has held that, consequent upon the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of UOI vs. V.R.Tripathi, the children born to the second wife may also be considered for compassionate appointment even where the second marriage has not been specifically permitted by the administration after ascertaining that there is no objection to this from the first wife or her children. In view of the above decision of the Railway Board, the applicant submitted representation, dt.24.06.2020, requesting the DRM, SCR, Secunderabad/3rd Respondent, to consider her son for appointment on compass