GUWAHATI, India, Jan. 12 -- Gauhati High Court issued the following order on Dec. 11:

1. In these set of writ appeals, the State has challenged the judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 30.01.2023 passed in analogous writ petitions, the lead case being WP(C) No.1646/2021, striking down Clause 1 of the Office Memorandum dated 01.06.2015, which imposed an eligibility cut-off for compassionate appointment, namely, that the dependants of a deceased Government employee who died in harness, would not be entitled to compassionate appointment if the deceased Government employee had less than 3(three) years of service remaining at the time of his death.

2. The offending Clause 1 of the Office Memorandum dated 01.06.2015 is being extracted herein below:-

"(1) Only one dependent family member of a Government servant appointed on regular basis - excluding one working on daily wage or casual or apprentice or ad-hoc or contract or re-employment basis - who die in harness or become incapacitated due to accidents suffered while on duty and is eligible to opt for invalid pension under relevant provision of Service Rule/Pension Code and/or who is missing is eligible for making application for compassionate appointment provided in each case the Government servant has balance of minimum of 3 years of service."

3. Several writ petitions were filed impugning the Office Memorandum dated 01.06.2015.

The learned Single Judge, as noted above, declared Clause 1 of the said Office Memorandum to be unconstitutional for it being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and directed the authorities to reconsider the rejected cases afresh.

4. The State had defended Clause 1 of the Office Memorandum dated 01.06.2015 as a rational classification intended to prevent fraud and misuse; the said Office Memorandum being inconformity with the 10(ten) principles enunciated for compassionate appointment in the case of Achyut Ranjan Das & Ors. -Vs- State of Assam & Ors. :: 2006 (4) GLT 674 and it being in sync with the Office Memorandum dated 16.01.2013 of the Department of Personnel & Training, Government of India, which too was referred to before framing the Office Memorandum dated 01.06.2015.

It was also contended that compassionate appointment is an exception to the merit based recruitment under Articles 14 & 16 of the Constitution of India and is not a vested right but a humanitarian concession to prevent destitution. The 3(three) year condition is justified as it compliments family pension benefits. The State also pointed out that the Office Memorandum dated 01.06.2015 now stands superseded by a new Scheme vide Office Memorandum No.FEG.28/2017/26 dated 14.09.2017 issued by the Finance Department, which actually replaces Compassionate Appointments with Compassionate Family Pension Scheme providing enhanced pension benefits instead.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=tuqye3PhFs%2BBDn75ghiOpLXZUOYBJ06vur7EwjNuWtBTxvvCAQfzFUhkP0xXWKB8&caseno=WA/78/2024&cCode=1&cino=GAHC010183692023&state_code=6&appFlag=)

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