CANARA BANK Vs. AJITHKUMAR G.K.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeal is concerned with the claim for compassionate appointment, which arose on the death of an employee in 2001. Despite judgments in two writ petitions, the first of which having already attained finality, the son of the deceased, for whom the hapless widow claimed compassionate appointment, is still unemployed after 18 years.

(2.) Immediately on the death of the employee, an application was filed as seen from Exhibit P1 for compassionate appointment. The application indicates that the deceased left behind the widow, three married daughters and an unemployed son. Obviously the claim for compassionate appointment was for the dependent family, which comprises the widow and the son. At the initial stage the claim was rejected by Exhibit P2, which quoted three reasons - (i) the deceased employee had only short period of service for retirement at the time of death, (ii) the receipt of family pension amounting to Rs.4,637.92 per mensem, and (iii) the son being over-aged.

(3.) A further application was filed by the son, which was also rejected by Exhibit P4, in which it has been stated that the financial position of the family has already been examined in depth and there are no fresh grounds to consider the claim. Then, a re-consideration sought for was also rejected by Exhibit P6. The son, hence, approached this Court with W.P(C) No.38363 of 2003, which was disposed of only on 16.06.2015. The learned Single Judge noticed that the Scheme for Employment on Compassionate Grounds [for brevity "the Scheme"] provided for relaxation of the maximum age limit which, as per the notification, was 26 years applicable to both clerical and sub-staff categories. It was also noticed that the terms of the Scheme specifically empowered the competent authority to relax the age by five years when there are no other dependents within the prescribed age limit available for employment. It was found that the Bank had not considered such relaxation only for the reason of a family pension being paid to the widow of the deceased. When there is a specific request for age relaxation, it should have been addressed by the competent authority and the reasons for not considering such relaxation should also be explicit in the order, was the finding.