The Supreme Court, in its verdict announced, 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.
This observation came in lieu of 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 had provisions for such appointments.
As per the older policy, if the respective employee was working at the time of his death, the dependent would not be 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.
MP 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 favoring the administration.
The father of the beneficiary was working as a ‘Chowkidar’ in an office at Tikamgarh district when he died on October 8, 2015. 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. "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.
With PTI Inputs