Compassionate appointment is intended to alleviate immediate financial penury; if a family member is already in government service, the applicant is ineligible under the policy, and the court cannot rewrite policy terms to mandate dependency inquiries.

Judgment on Board

Per, Ramesh Sinha, CJ .

1 For the reasons mentioned in the application and finding them to be satisfactory, IA No.01/2026 is allowed and delay in filing the appeal is ordered to be condoned.

2 Being aggrieved by the order dated 28.04.2026 passed by learned Single Judge in WPS No.6649 of 2022, dismissing the writ petition filed by the petitioner seeking compassionate appointment, the present writ appeal has been filed.

3 Learned counsel for the appellant would submit that, the father of the appellant, working as Line Attendant, stood died in harness on 27.04.2021. The appellant who is son of the deceased employee, applied for grant of compassionate appointment which was rejected on 04.05.2022 on the ground that another son of deceased employee is already in service with the same department. He would contend that the brother of appellant herein was appointed with the respondents prior to death of his father and he was residing separately and never financially assisted the family. The respondent authorities ought to have conducted an inquiry with regard to financial condition of the appellant. He would further contend that the appellant has challenged Clause-6A of the policy for grant of compassionate appointment of the State Government as same is violative of Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India. Learned Single Judge has not considered all these facts and therefore the writ appeal may be allowed and the appellant may be directed to be given compassionate appointment.

4 On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondents opposes the submissions made by learned counsel for the appellant and submits that since the brother of appellant is already in government job, as such, in terms of the policy for compassionate appointment, the candidature of the appellant has rightly been rejected by learned Single Judge which does not call for any interference.

5 We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material available on record.

6 All said and done, one of the family member i.e. son of the deceased employee already in government service have not been disputed by the appellant. The financial crisis or penury is the basic parameter for consideration of compassionate appointment in view of the object and policy framed by the Government. As such, the action of the respondent authorities rejecting the application of the appellant seeking compassionate appointment is justified on the count that brother of the appellant is already in government employment.

7 As regards the scheme for compassionate appointment is concerned, the legal position as it stands, it has been time and again laid down by the Supreme Court as also by this court that the scheme for compassionate appointment can only be considered strictly in accordance with the scheme and policy applicable at the relevant point of time. Moreover, it is also settled position of law that compassionate appointment cannot be considered as another mode of recruitment. The very purpose of granting compassionate appointment is to ensure that the family members of the deceased employee are able to meet the immediate financial crises that they face upon the death of the bread earner in the family.

8 So far as submission of the counsel for the appellant with regard to challenge of Clause-6A of the policy for grant of compassionate appointment issued by the State Government is concerned, the same was challenged before the Division Bench of this court in Rachana Darwade Vs. State of Chhattisgarh & Others and batch of Writ Petitions, leading case of which being WPS No.561 of 2022, in which the Division Bench has observed as under :

“41. Reiterating the conclusion in Neeraj Kumar Uke (supra) and bearing in mind that compassionate appointment must be governed by terms on which the State lays down the policy offering employment assistance to a member of the family of a deceased government employ