STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. BUDHABHAI A CHAVDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Admit. With the consent of the learned Counsel for the parties, this appeal is taken up today for final disposal.

(2.) This Letters Patent Appeal has been filed by the Appellants challenging the judgment and order dated 19-4-2010 passed by the learned Single Judge, in Special Civil Application No. 17541 of 2007, by which, the learned Single Judge has allowed the writ petition and directed the Respondent authorities to consider the case of Respondent afresh for giving appointment on compassionate ground on the basis of the policy prevailing on the date when application for compassionate appointment was made by the Appellants. It was further directed that the authority shall take a fresh decision within a period of four weeks.

(3.) The facts of the case in brief are that, the father of Respondent was working as a Watchman (Chowkidar) and he died in harness on 29-12-2001. On the next day of death, the Respondent on 30-12-2001 moved an application before the authorities to grant him appointment on compassionate ground. The application dated 30-12-2001 was on a plain paper, even then the Appellants on 28-1-2002 asked the Respondent to submit documents as mentioned in the letter. The Respondent submitted the required documents on 13-8-2002 to the Section Officer who forwarded it on 22-11-2002 to the Executive Engineer who in turn forwarded the application on 11-7-2003 to the Respondent No. 1. On receipt of the application and documents, the Respondent No. 1 rejected the said application on 13-1-2004 on the ground that the application has been made after six months of the death of the deceased and was time-barred as per Government Resolution dated 10-3-2004. The Respondent made another request for appointment on compassionate ground which was rejected by order dated 18-8-2005 on the ground that the Respondent did not possess the minimum qualification, i.e. S.S.C. as per the Notification dated 16-3-2005.