Vandana Rajawat, v. The State Of Bihar
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.23529 of 2019 ====================================================== Vandana Rajawat, Wife of Santosh Kumar Bharti, Resident of Village-Ward No. 04, Bhalui (Basra), P.O.-Basra, P.S.-Rajapakar, District-Vaishali. ... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
1.
The State of Bihar through the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, Patna. 2.
The Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar, Patna.
3.
The Chief Engineer, Sichai Srijan, Water Resources Department, Barari, Bhagalpur.
4.
The Executive Engineer, Ganga Pump Nahar Pramandal, Suryagarha Sivir, District-Munger.
5.
The District Magistrate, Munger.
... ... Respondent/s ====================================================== Appearance :
For the Petitioner/s :
Mr. Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Advocate For the Respondent/s :
Mr. Vinay Kirti Singh, GA-2 Mr. Sumant Kumar Singh, AC to GA-2 ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE HARISH KUMAR ORAL ORDER 02-07-2025 Heard the parties.
2. The husband of the petitioner died in harness on 23.09.2013 while working as a fourth grade employee in the Water Resources Department. Facing the destitution and penury on account of the death of bread earner, the petitioner immediately submitted her application for compassionate appointment, which was forwarded by the Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Bhagalpur to the Establishment Deputy Collector, Munger vide letter no. 2945 dated 16.09.2014 for placing the same in the meeting of District Compassionate
2/4 Appointment Committee for consideration. The committee considered the claim of the petitioner and recommended for her appointment on compassionate ground against Group D post vide Memo No. 659 dated 23.08.2017, the copy of which is also placed on record as Annexure A series in the counter affidavit.
3. On receipt of the recommendation, the office of the Chief Engineer sent the testimonials of the petitioner to the concerned institution for verification. The other certificates have also been verified and the same have been found to be genuine. The Secondary School Examination Certificate of the petitioner was also sent to the Examination Controller, Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad, Madhya Bharat, Gwalior vide letter no. 1596 dated 28.11.2017. Despite the correspondences made at the level of the respondent authorities, no response has been made by the concerned Examination Controller, Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad, Madhya Bharat, Gwalior.
4. In the mean while, a verification report of the school certificate was received in the office of the Chief Engineer on 13.04.2018, showing genuineness of the certificate. However, on being dissatisfied with the letter afore-noted, the copy of which is placed on record as Annexure E, the Chief Engineer again sent letter to the concerned institution for
3/4 verification of the documents, but all the letters sent to the institution returned undelivered. Hence, suspicion has been raised with regard to the genuineness of the matriculation certificate.
5. Having heard the learned Advocate for the respective parties and the materials available on record, this Court prima facie finds that the name of the petitioner was recommended by the District Compassionate Appointment Committee long back in the year 2017 and more than eight years have been lapsed and till date, in the name of verification of the certificates, the petitioner has been kept in lurch. The respondent authorities are obliged to take a call, since there is a recommendation of the District Compassionate Appointment Committee in favour of the petitioner. The petitioner in no way left in a difficult situation for an indefinite period; all the more, eight years have been lapsed, even after the favourable recommendation.
6. In order to give quietus to the litigation, this Court directs the respondent no. 2 and 3 to deliberate the matter and take a final decision over the recommendation made by the District Compassionate Appointment Committee, in accordance with law, preferably within a period of twelve weeks' from
4/4 today.
7. The writ petition stands disposed.
(Harish Kumar, J) supratim/- U