PURNIMA BINDHANI Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by rejection of her claim for appointment under Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme by the Chief Engineer and Basin Manager, Subarnarekha and Budhabalanga Basin, Mayurbhanj by order dtd. 6/9/2022.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that her husband, Gobardhan Bindhani was working as Watchman in the office of the Superintending Engineer, Subarnarekha Irrigation Division No.1 at Jharpokharia in the district of Mayurbhanj. He died in harness on 2/7/2016 due to illness leaving behind his widow (petitioner), two sons and his old mother. The family being suddenly faced with financial crisis because of death of the only earning member, the petitioner submitted an application to the opposite party No.4 for consideration of her case for appointment under the Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme. The matter was kept pending for long time. The Executive Engineer of the Division called upon the petitioner to resubmit the application with all documents which she submitted on 13/3/2019. By letter dtd. 18/4/2019, the Executive Engineer forwarded the application of the petitioner along with the connected documents to the Superintending Engineer. Again no action was taken till 4/7/2022, on which date the case of the petitioner was considered as per the Odisha Civil Services (Rehabilitation Assistance) Rules, 2020 (in short '2020 Rules') and was rejected on the ground that she had scored less than 44 points in Part-1. The decision of the committee was communicated to the petitioner through the Superintending Engineer by letter dtd. 6/9/2022, copy enclosed as Annexure-6, which is impugned in the present application. On such facts, the petitioner has approached this Court seeking the following relief:

(3.) Despite sufficient opportunities, no counter affidavit was filed on behalf of the opposite party authorities, for which the matter was heard on the basis of the available pleadings.