SC makes clarification on Karnataka 'compassionate appointment'

The Supreme Court has declared that the modified scheme on compassionate appointment in Karnataka would be applied based only upon a determinate and fixed criteria such as the date of death of the employee, instead of the time of consideration of the plea by dependent of the deceased staff.

A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramaian cited previous judgements, to point out in cases where the benefits under an existing scheme were enlarged by a modified scheme after the death of the employee, this court applied only the scheme that was in force on the date of death of the employee.

"This is fundamentally due to the fact that compassionate appointment was always considered to be an exception to the normal method of recruitment and perhaps looked down upon with lesser compassion for the individual and greater concern for the rule of law," the bench said.

The court allowed an appeal filed by the Karnataka government and set aside the orders passed by the High Court and the State Administrative Tribunal for appointment of Bheemesh alias Bhimappa.

The man submitted his sister was employed as assistant teacher in a government school, and died in harness on December 8, 2010, leaving behind her surviving mother, two brothers and two sisters. He sought compassionate appointment, claiming that the deceased was unmarried and that the mother, two brothers and two sisters were entirely dependent on her income.

The competent authority in the case by an order in November, 2012, rejected the claim on the ground that the amendment made to the Karnataka Civil Services (Appointment on Compassionate Grounds) (7th amendment) Rules, 2012 on June 20, 2012, extending the benefit of compassionate appointment to the unmarried dependant brother of an unmarried female employee, will not be applicable to the case. It was pointed out the employee here died before the amendment to the rules.

The top court did not agree to the contention, after noting that on the date of the death of the employee, there was no provision in rules to give compassionate appointment to brother of unmarried woman staff.

"We are of the considered view that the interpretation as to the applicability of a modified Scheme should depend only upon a determinate and fixed criteria such as the date of death and not an indeterminate and variable factors like date of filing application or its consideration," the bench said.

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