The Delhi High Court has held that a family cannot claim government employment on compassionate ground at their own “convenience” while rejecting a man’s plea, seeking a direction to the Centre to provide him a government job 19 years after his father’s death.

Dismissing Ajay Kumar’s plea, a bench led by Justice Pradeep Nandrajog said the petition highlights how in the name of compassion, the government policy to provide employment to the dependent of the deceased employee to save them from starvation, is being misused.

“We cannot lose sight of the fact that there is cut-throat competition to seek public employment. But even after decades of the death of the employee, backdoor entry is being provided to dependents when the family has already overcome the crisis,” said the court.

Upholding the Central Administrative Tribunal order rejecting Kumar’s plea for an employment, the court said, “We find that the Tribunal has rightly rejected the application filed by the petitioner. The appointment of a dependent of an employee who dies in service is to mitigate the sudden miseries and hardships faced by the family due to sudden death of sole bread-earner of the family.”

“It is meant to relieve unexpected hardships and distress caused to the family and to enable them to get over the financial crisis. Employment on compassionate ground cannot be claimed or granted when the crisis is already over,” said the court.

According Kumar’s plea, his father Kunwar Pal, a technician with the railways, died on May 22, 1984 when he was only six years old.

The department had agreed to provide him a job when he turns 18 in June 1999.