Chhattisgarh Court Rejects Compassionate Appointment Plea 15 Years After Employee's Death

In a recent ruling, the Chhattisgarh High Court has dismissed a woman's appeal for compassionate appointment, emphasizing that such jobs are intended to provide immediate financial assistance to families in sudden crisis, not long-term employment.

The case involves a 27-year-old woman whose mother, an assistant teacher, passed away in 2000 when the woman was just 3 years old. The woman, along with her younger sister and brother, were left to be raised by their elderly maternal grandmother after their father allegedly abandoned them.

The woman applied for a compassionate appointment in 2015, 15 years after her mother's death. However, the school education department rejected her application in 2017, leading her to approach the high court. The court has now upheld the department's decision, stating that granting a job after such a prolonged period would go against the very purpose of the compassionate appointment policy.

The Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Bibhu Datta Guru, noted that the family had already survived the crisis caused by the sudden loss of the breadwinner. Therefore, the objective of the scheme, which is to help a family overcome immediate financial hardship, no longer existed in this case. The court relied on a Supreme Court ruling that appointments cannot be granted "after a number of years from the death of the deceased employee."