Process applications for compassionate appointments without any delay: SC

The Supreme Court said that such a state of affairs may have ultimately prejudiced the families of several government employees dying in harness

The Supreme Court has expressed concerns over the inordinate delays housing the implementation of compassionate appoint schemes by the West Bengal government.

A Bench of Justices Krishna Murari and B V Nagarathna observed that such a state of affairs may have ultimately prejudiced families of several government employees dying in harness.

The court also had some strong words for the West Bengal authorities over the manner in which applications for compassionate appointment by hundreds of dependants were dealt with.

"Much uncertainty looms around the scope, extent and beneficiaries of the various schemes formulated by the State for governing compassionate appointment and therefore, the concerned authorities are unable/unwilling to positively decide claims for compassionate appointment," the Bench said.

The Supreme Court also remarked that such delays will frustrate the object of such schemes and called on the authorities to deal with claims for compassionate appointments with a sense of immediacy.

"Delay on the part of the authorities of the State to decide claims for compassionate appointment would no doubt frustrate the very object of a scheme of compassionate appointment. Government officials are to act with a sense of utmost proactiveness and immediacy while deciding claims of compassionate appointment so as to ensure that the wholesome object of such a scheme is fulfilled," the Bench said.

The observations were made in a case involving applications to the Burdwan, Habra and Ranaghat municipalities for employment on compassionate grounds.

The applicants were legal heirs of municipal employees who died while in service. Disputes emerged over whether the applicants could be considered for compassionate appointment and whether there was any government scheme supporting their claims.

The Calcutta High Court in 2019 ordered the municipal authorities to consider their applications. The High Court set aside the single-judge order which had agreed with the authorities that no such scheme was applicable to urban local bodies.

The Division Bench of the High Court had relied on circulars indicating that such schemes should be extended to municipal employees.

Aggrieved by order, the state authorities made an appeal before the Supreme Court.

It was argued by the State that at this belated stage, compassionate appointments sought would have no redeeming values, Such an appointment was a policy decision and cannot be made as a matter of right, the State counsel submitted.

The respondents however counted the argument in the absence of a specific scheme and added that the High Court was right in granting the relief that it did.

The Supreme Court observed that the appeal primarily concerned whether any scheme governing compassionate appointment for municipal employees dying in harness existed in the state.

If it did, then the next question before the Court was whether such relief can be granted after several years, in view of the object of such policies.

"The sense of immediacy in the matter of compassionate appointment has been lost in the present case. This is attributable to the authorities of the Appellant-State as well as the Respondents-Writ Petitioners. Now, entertaining a claim which was made in 2005-2006, in the year 2023, would be of no avail, because admittedly, the Respondents-Writ Petitioners have been able to eke out a living even though they did not successfully get appointed to the services of the Municipality on compassionate grounds," the Court said.

The Court also observed that there existed no policy for compassionate appointments for family members of employees in municipal bodies of West Bengal.

Hence the Court concluded that compassionate appointment sought cannot be granted in the absence of any policy for the same.

"Existence of a policy issued by the State Government is a sine qua non for making appointments on compassionate basis ... The appointments must follow the stipulations made in the policy. It is therefore a no-brainer that in the absence of a policy governing compassionate appointment to posts under a local authority, no appointment could be made to such an authority on compassionate grounds," the Bench said.