M.Kumaravel, v. The District Collector,
BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT DATED: 20.08.2019
CORAM:
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE S.M.SUBRAMANIAM W.P.(MD) No.15701 of 2014 M.Kumaravel ... Petitioner vs.
1.The District Collector Dindigul District Dindigul 2.The Tahsildar Palani Taluk Dindigul District ... Respondents PRAYER: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuance of writ of certiorarified mandamus to call for the records of the 1st respondent in O.Mu.No.33660/2010/A3 dated 28.09.2010 and quash the same as illegal and consequently directing the respondents to appoint the petitioner on compassionate ground on account of the deceased T.Murugesan father of the petitioner within the time stipulated by this Court.
For Petitioner : Mr.R.Babu Jeganath For Respondents : Mr.M.Jeyakumar Additional Government Pleader
O R D E R
The order of rejection, dated 28.09.2010, passed by the first respondent, rejecting the claim of the writ petitioner for compassionate appointment, is under challenge in the present writ petition.
2. The father of the writ petitioner was employed as Village Assistant in Palappanpatti Village Panchayat and died on 03.01.2002, while he was in service.
3. The learned counsel appearing for the writ petitioner states that the writ petitioner was a minor during the relevant point of time. Thus, he could not submit application seeking appointment on compassionate grounds. The writ petitioner, on attaining the age of majority, submitted an application on 01.07.2010. The said application was rejected by the first respondent vide proceedings dated 28.09.2010, stating that the application itself was submitted after a lapse of three years from the date of death of the writ petitioner's father. Challenging the order of rejection, the writ petitioner has filed the present writ petition on 17.09.2014, after a lapse of four years from the date of passing of the impugned order.
4. At the outset, the writ petitioner has not pursued his remedy vigilantly and this apart, the application itself was submitted by the writ petitioner, after a lapse of eight years from the date of death of his father and after attaining the age of majority.
5.
The very purpose and object of the scheme of compassionate appointment is to mitigate the circumstances arising on account of the sudden death of the Government servant. It is not the object of the scheme to provide appointment to the legal heir of the deceased employee. The very purpose is to save the family in distress on account of the sudden death of the employee. Thus, the scheme of compassionate appointment is to be provided to the needy family within a reasonable period of time. However, the compassionate appointment cannot be provided after a lapse of so many years and in such circumstances, the Courts are bound to draw a factual inference that the penurious circumstance arose on account of the sudden death of the employee became vanished. Thus, the very scheme of compassionate appointment is to be implemented strictly in accordance with the terms and conditions as well as within a reasonable period of time.
6.
The scheme of compassionate appointment being a concession cannot be claimed as a matter of legal right. The scheme of compassionate appointment is a non-statutory one. Thus, the persons claiming the benefit of the scheme of compassionate appointment must fulfill the conditions stipulated in the Government orders in force. Under these circumstances, the facts in the present case on hand reveal that the deceased employee passed away on 03.01.2002 and the writ petitioner submitted an application on 01.07.2010, after a lapse of eight years and on attaining the age of majority. The said application was rejected by the first respondent on 28.09.2010 and the present writ petition was filed challenging the said order of rejection on 17.09.2014, after a lapse of four years from the date of passing of the impugned order. This being the admitted facts, the scheme of compassionate appointment cannot be extended in favour of the writ petitioner in view of the legal principles settled by the Honourable Supreme Court of India.
7. The Honourable Supreme Court of India, in the case of Government of India and another vs. P.Venkatesh, in Civil Appeal No.2425 of 2019, dated 01.03.2019, has held as follows: "The primary difficulty in accepting the line of submissions, which weighed with the High Court, and were reiterated on behalf of the respondent in these proceedings, is simply this:
Compassionate appointment, it is well-settled, is intended to enable the family of a deceased employee to tide over the crisis which is caused as a result of the death of an employee, while in harness. The essence of the claim lies in the immediacy of the need. If the facts of the
present case are seen, it is evident that even the first recourse to the Central Administrative Tribunal was in 2007, nearly eleven years after the death of the employee. In the meantime, the first set of representations had been rejected on 3 January 1997. The Tribunal, unfortunately, passed a succession of orders calling upon the appellants to consider and then re-consider the representations for compassionate appointment. After the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting rejected the representation on 13 November 2007, it was only in 2010 that the Tribunal was moved again, with the same result. These successive orders of Tribunal for re-consideration of the representation cannot obliterate the effect of the initial delay in moving the Tribunal for compassionate appointment over a decade after the death of the deceased employee.
This 'dispose of the representation' mantra is increasingly permeating the judicial process in the High Courts and the Tribunals. Such orders may make for a quick or easy disposal of cases in overburdened adjudicatory institutions. But, they do no service to the cause of justice. The litigant is back again before the Court, as this case shows, having incurred attendant costs and suffered delays of the legal process. This would have been obviated by calling for a counter in the first instance, thereby resulting in finality to the dispute. By the time, the High Court issued its direction on 9 August 2016, nearly twenty one years had elapsed since the date of the death of the employee."
8. The Apex Court in the case of State of Himachal Pradesh and another vs. Shashi Kumar, reported in (2019) 3 SCC 653, has ruled as follows:
"18. While considering the rival submissions, it is necessary to bear in mind that compassionate appointment is an exception to the general rule that appointment to any public post in the service of the State has to be made on the basis of principles which accord with Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. Dependants of a deceased employee of the State are made eligible by virtue of the policy on compassionate appointment. The basis of the policy is that it recognises that a family of a deceased employee may be placed in a position of financial hardship upon the unitimely death of the employee while in service. It is the immediacy of the need which furnishes the basis for the State to allow the benefit of compassionate appointment. Where the authority finds that the financial and other
circumstances of the family are such that in the absence of immediate assistance, it would be reduced to being indigent, an application from a dependent member of the family could be considered. The terms on which such applications would be considered are subject to the policy which is framed by the State and must fulfil the terms of the policy. In that sense, it is a well-settled principle of law that there is no right to compassionate appointment. But, where there is a policy, a dependent member of the family of a deceased employee is entitled to apply for compassionate appointment and to seek consideration of the application in accordance with the terms and conditions which are prescribed by the State.
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35. Insofar as the individual facts pertaining to the respondent are concerned, it has emerged from the record that the writ petition before the High Court was instituted on 11-5-2015. The application for compassionate appointment was submitted on 8-5-2007. On 15-1-2008 the Additional Secretary had required that the amount realised by way of pension be included in the income statement of the family. The respondent waited thereafter for a period in excess of seven years to move a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. In Umesh Kumar Nagpal, this Court has emphasised that the basis of a scheme of compassionate appointment lies in the need of providing immediate assistance to the family of the deceased employee. This sense of immediacy is evidently lost by the delay on the part of the dependant in seeking compassionate appointment.
36. We are not impressed with the submission that delay should not be taken into account since Para(8) of the policy/scheme contemplates that in a situation where all the dependent children of the deceased employee have yet to attain the age of majority, the time-limit for submission of an application is extended until the first of the children attains the age of twenty-one years. A case where each of the children is a minor falls in a different class altogether. This cannot be equated with a situation where a dependant of a deceased employee who was a major on the date of death fails to submit an application within a reasonable period of time from the death of the employee. This aspect of delay has been dealt with in other decisions of this Court, including State of J & K v. Sajad Ahmed Mir and Local
Admn. Deptt. v. M. Selvanayagam.
37. We see no reason or purpose in now directing the State to reconsider its decision in the case of the respondent which would only result in another round of fruitless litigation. In our view, the respondent is debarred from seeking compassionate appointment by the delay as well as by the lapse of time which has taken place."
9. Under these circumstances, this Court is not inclined to consider the relief as such sought for in the present writ petition. Accordingly, the writ petition stands dismissed. No costs. Sd/- Assistant Registrar (CS-II) // True Copy // Sub Assistant Registrar(CS ) To 1.The District Collector, Dindigul District, Dindigul.
2.The Tahsildar, Palani Taluk, Dindigul District.
+1 CC to SPL GP ( SR-82884[F] dated 21/08/2019 ) +1 CC to Mr.R.BABU JAGANATH, Advocate (SR-83274[F] dated 26/08/2019 ) W.P.(MD) No.15701 of 2014 20.08.2019 KRK MK (16.09.2019) 5P 5C