Narendra Sahu vs State Of Chhattisgarh
2021 Latest Caselaw 1184 Chatt

                                             1


                                                                                NAFR

                   HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR

                                 WPS No. 3665 of 2021
     Narendra Sahu, S/o Late Jagdish Chandra Sahu, Aged About 30 Years
     R/o Village Jhariyapali, Post Office Devgarh, Tehsil Gharghoda, District
     Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.
                                                                      ---- Petitioner
                                           Versus
     1.      State Of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, General Administration
             Department, Mantralaya, Mahanadi Bhavan, Nava Raipur, Atal
             Nagar, District Raipur Chhattisgarh.
     2.      District Education Officer, District Raigarh Chhattisgarh
     3.      Block Education Officer, Tamnar, District Raigarh, Chhattisgarh
                                                                  ----Respondents

     For Petitioner                    :      Mr. Anadi Sharma, Advocate
     For State                         :      Ms. Sunita Jain, G.A.


                          Hon'ble Shri Justice P. Sam Koshy
                                   Order on Board

16/07/2021

1. Aggrieved by the order dated 02.03.2021 (Annexure P/1) the

present writ petition has been filed. Vide the said order the claim for

compassionate appointment of the petitioner has been rejected.

The rejection has been on account of the elder brother of the

petitioner found to be in government employment.

2. The facts in brief for disposal of the present writ petition are that the

father of the petitioner was working under the respondents as a

Headmaster, Middle School. On account of getting infected with the

Corona Virus, father of the petitioner died in harness on

20.12.2012. The petitioner immediately thereafter moved an

application for compassionate appointment, which now vide the

impugned order has been rejected leading to the filing of the

present writ petition.

3. According to the petitioner, on the date of the death of the

deceased, he was survived with his father aged around 82 years,

his wife the widow, two sons and a daughter. Of the three children,

the eldest son was already in government employment, married and

living separately with his own family and responsibility. Though also

the sister of the petitioner i.e. the daughter of the deceased also

was married and staying at her matrimonial home, married much

before the deceased had expired in the year 2012 itself. Thus, on

the date of the death, it was the petitioner and his mother i.e. the

widow of the deceased employee and the grandfather of the

petitioner i.e. the father of the deceased, who were living together

and were totally dependent upon the income of the deceased.

According to the petitioner, the Rashan card which the petitioner

had also does not reflect the name of his elder brother as a member

of the family and it was only the grandfather, the widow and the

petitioner and his wife, who were reflected to be the family

members of the deceased late Jagdish Chandra Sahu. The

petitioner has also produced a document which shows that the

eldest son staying separately and he has his own Rashan card,

which does not bear the name of the petitioner, and his mother and

grandfather in the said in support of his contention that they were

living separately and were not supporting the petitioner in any

manner.

4. According to the petitioner the authorities ought to have conducted

some preliminary enquiry at least in this regard so far as

ascertaining the dependency part and only thereafter authorities

should have taken a decision on the claim of the petitioner for

compassionate appointment. According to the petitioner the

rejection of the claim application of the petitioner on the technical

ground of someone in the family being in employment is bad and is

also arbitrary and would also defeat the very purpose for which the

policy for compassionate appointment is framed and enacted.

According to the petitioner the very purpose for which the State has

enacted the policy of compassionate appointment is to ensure that

the family of the deceased employee is not put to the stage of

penury or financial stringency, because of the death of sole bread

earner of the family. If somebody in the family is already in

employment what needs to be ascertained is to whether there is

any dependent upon them of the dependents and whether the said

person is in a capacity to sustain the widow and other dependents

to the deceased.

5. All these need to be verified ascertaining after due scrutiny and only

thereafter should a decision have been taken by the respondents.

Thus, the impugned order to that extent deserves to be set

aside/quashed and matter needs to be remitted back to the

authorities for a fresh consideration after due scrutiny and

ascertainment of the aforesaid facts.

6. The State counsel on the other hand opposing the petition submits

that since the one brother of the petitioner is already in government

employment, in terms of the policy for compassionate appointment

the candidature of the applicant has been rejected and in the

absence of any challenge to the policy, the decision of the

respondent cannot be said to be bad.

7. At this juncture, it would be relevant to take note of a recent

judgment passed by this Court in WPS No. 1025/2020 (Nandini

Pradhan Vs. State of Chhattisgarh & Others). The said Writ Petition

was allowed on 18.2.2020 wherein the Court has relied upon the

judgment passed on an earlier occasion in the case of Smt.

Sulochana Netam Vs. State of Chhattisgarh & Others in WPS No.

2728/2017 decided on 23.11.2017 wherein this Court had allowed

the said Writ Petition and set aside the earlier order passed by the

authorities and had remitted the matter back for a fresh

consideration of the claim of Petitioner after due verification of

dependency aspect, firstly upon the deceased employee and

secondly whether the brothers of Petitioner who are in government

employment are providing any assistance to Petitioner or not and

also whether those brothers have married and have their own family

or not and whether they are staying along with Petitioner or not.

These are the facts which ought to have been verified while

rejecting the claim of Petitioner in the present Writ Petition and

which does not seem to have been considered by the authorities

and they simply passed an order on hyper technical ground

specifically dis-entitling the Petitioner for claiming compassionate

appointment in the event of family members of deceased employee

being in government employment.

8. This Court is of the firm view that the intention by which the said

clause inserted by the State Government in the policy of

compassionate appointment was to ensure that the compassionate

appointment can be given to a person whose is more needy. It

never meant that in the event of there being somebody in the

government employment in the family of deceased employee, the

claim for compassionate appointment would stand rejected only on

that ground. Moreover, in the opinion of this Court the possibility

cannot be ruled out of the so called earning members and the so

called persons who are in government employment from among the

family members of deceased employee having their own family

liabilities and in some cases are far away from the place of

deceased employee and staying along with their own family. The

rejection of the claim for compassionate appointment to a person

who was directly dependent upon the earnings of deceased

employee would be arbitrary and would also be in contravention of

the intentions of framing the scheme for compassionate

appointment.

9. In the case of Sulochana (supra), in paragraph 9, this Court dealing

with the said issue has held as under:-

"9. In the considered opinion of this Court, in a case, where claim of compassionate appointment is made on the ground that the other member of the family had started living separately and not providing any financial help to the remaining dependent members of the family, who are at lurch, factual enquiry ought to be made by the competent authority to arrive at its own conclusion of facts as to whether this assertion of other earning member living separately is factually correct or not. If it is found, as a matter of fact, that the other earning member of the family at the time of death had already started living separately and not providing financial assistance to the remaining dependents of the family,compassionate appointment must follow to eligible dependent of the family. However, in the enquiry, if it is found that the claim is only to get employment without there being any need because other earning member of the family is not living separately and providing financial support, compassionate appointment may not follow. The aforesaid enquiry is required to be done even though the policy does not categorically state so. The State should consider by incorporating amendments in the policy to deal with this such contingency where it is found

that on the date of death of government servant, the other earning member was living separately and not providing any financial help."

10. The aforesaid principles of law laid down in the case of Sulochana

(supra) have been followed by this Court in a large number of cases

and that is the consistent stand of the various branches of this

Court in the past many years now. This Court is also in the given

circumstances inclined to hold that the rejection of the application of

Petitioner for compassionate appointment by a single line order only

on the basis of the clause mentioned in the scheme or policy of

compassionate appointment of the State Government would not be

sustainable. There ought to have been some sort of preliminary

enquiry so far as dependency part is concerned conducted by the

Respondents prior to reaching to a conclusion.

11. Considering the fact that the elder brother of the petitioner is in

government employment and sister of the petitioner was married

and staying at her matrimonial home, what needs to be verified is

whether the said persons can be brought within the ambit of

dependent. Whether the said persons can be compelled to take

care of the petitioner and his widowed mother and grandfather,

particularly when they have their own family to take care of and they

have been living separately altogether.

12. In the absence of any such situation, the policy of the State

Government to that extent so far as compassionate appointment is

concerned, has to be read down to be decided only after an enquiry

which needs to be conducted by the respondents, ascertaining the

dependency part and also in respect of any support which the

petitioner is getting from the brother. In view of the same the

rejection of the impugned order only on the basis of two sisters of

the petitioner being in government employment in terms of the

policy of the State Government would not be sustainable. For the

aforesaid reason, the impugned order needs to be reconsidered

and the rejection of the candidature of the petitioner by strict

interpretation of the policy would not be sustainable.

13. Thus, for all the aforesaid reasons, the impugned order, Annexure

P/1 dated 02.03.2021 deserves to be and is accordingly set aside.

The authorities are directed to re-consider the claim of the

Petitioners afresh taking into consideration the observations made

by this Court in the preceding paragraphs and take a fresh decision

at the earliest within an outer limit of 90 days from the date of

receipt of copy of this order.

14. Writ Petition is allowed and disposed of accordingly.

Sd/-

(P. Sam Koshy) Judge Ved