PUTUL RABIDAS Vs. EASTERN COALFIELDS LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner seeks an appointment on compassionate grounds under the National Coal Wage Agreement following the death in harness of her mother. The mother was employed at the Sanctoria Hospital of Eastern Coalfields Limited and died in December, 2011.

(2.) The petitioner was married in the year 2000, but such marriage was dissolved by a decree of divorce in August, 2009. The petitioner claims that since the dissolution of her marriage she moved in with her mother and both the petitioner and her minor son were wholly dependent on the mother immediately prior to the mother's death. The petitioner claims that she does not have any independent income or source of funds and her former husband did not provide for any maintenance or financial support for her or her child. The petitioner also claims that during the lifetime of the petitioner's mother, the mother had filed an affidavit with the employer in 2009 indicating that the petitioner and the petitioner's minor son were the dependants of the petitioner's mother. The petitioner says that upon her mother's application, the names of the petitioner and her son were incorporated in the service -book of the petitioner's mother as the only dependants of such employee.

(3.) Following the death of her mother, the petitioner applied on February 21, 2012 for an appointment to be given to her on compassionate grounds. The petitioner claims that she waited for some time for her application to be processed, but finding no response from ECL despite gathering informally that a legal opinion obtained by ECL was in her favour, the petitioner raised a query under the Right to Information Act, 2005, seeking the legal opinion on the petitioner's application. The legal opinion was forwarded to the petitioner and it appears therefrom that it was stated therein that "a divorced daughter falls in the category of 'unmarried daughter' for the purpose of employment of a dependant of the worker who dies while in service/permanently disabled".