India News | Policy Prevalent at Time of Death of Govt Employee Will Govern Compassionate Appointment: SC
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Supreme Court Thursday said the policy prevalent at the time of the death of a government employee would be followed for granting or denying the appointment on compassionate ground to the dependent.
New Delhi, Nov 18 (PTI) The Supreme Court Thursday said the policy prevalent at the time of the death of a government employee would be followed for granting or denying the appointment on compassionate ground to the dependent.
The observation came in a verdict of the apex court setting aside the judgement of a Division Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which had asked the state government to grant a government job on compassionate ground to a person, whose father had died in service, under the amended policy which provided for such an appointment.
As per the policy, when the employee was working at the time of his death, the dependent was not entitled to any appointment on compassionate ground.
Quashing the appointment, the bench of Justices M R Shah and Sanjiv Khanna referred to various apex court judgements and said, “As per the settled preposition of law...for appointment on compassionate ground, the policy prevalent at the time of death of the deceased employee only is required to be considered and not the subsequent policy”.
“It is...held that a claim for compassionate appointment must be decided only on the basis of a relevant scheme prevalent on the date of demise of the employee and subsequent scheme cannot be looked into,” said Justice Shah, writing the verdict for the bench.
The verdict came on the appeal filed by the Madhya Pradesh government.
The state government was aggrieved with the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh Bench at Jabalpur by which it had allowed the plea for appointment on compassionate ground setting aside the single-judge order favouring the administration.
The father of the beneficiary was working as a ‘Chowkidar' in an office at Tikamgarh district and had died on October 8, 2015 and his son was given a compensatory amount of Rs 2 lakh as per the policy prevalent at the time of his death.
“That after the death of the deceased employee, the policy for appointment on compassionate ground came to be amended vide circular dated August 31, 2016 and it was provided that even in case of death of the employee working on work charge, his one of the heirs/ dependents shall be eligible for the appointment on compassionate ground,” the verdict said.
The subsequent policy was used for granting the job on compassionate ground by the division bench of the high court.
“The impugned judgment and order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh...is hereby quashed and set aside by observing that the respondent shall not be entitled for appointment on compassionate ground on the basis of the subsequent circular/policy...
"It is reported that the amount of Rs 2 lakhs which was paid to the respondent as compensatory amount pursuant to the policy/scheme of 2014 has been given back by the respondent. If that be so, the same may be paid to the respondent,” the apex court said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)