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Ahmednagar Mahanagar Palika vs Ahmednagar Mahanagar Palika Kamgar Union

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 914Decided 5 Sept 2022
Civil Appeal No. 5945/2022 arising from SLP(C) No. 10279/2022), Civil Appeal No. 5944 of 2022
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

In 1981, when Ahmednagar was still a Municipal Council, an industrial award directed that if a Class-IV employee died, became invalid, or retired, their heir would be given appointment in their place. After the Council became a Municipal Corporation (Mahanagar Palika) in 2003 and came under state-government service rules, the Kamgar Union pursued two industrial complaints seeking enforcement of that 1981 award for retiring employees' heirs. The Industrial Court and, on writ petition, the Bombay High Court (Aurangabad Bench) both directed the Municipal Corporation to give such appointments, with the High Court further ordering lump-sum compensation of Rs. 5 lakh for heirs over 45 years of age in lieu of appointment. The Municipal Corporation appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that a later 2005 industrial award (Reference (IT) No. 2/1993), passed at the Municipal Corporation's own instance, had already modified the 1981 award, restricting compassionate appointment to heirs of employees who died in service, not those who merely retired, precisely because the earlier open-ended promise was being misused and was worsening unemployment for outside job-seekers. The Court held that after municipalisation, employees were governed by the State Government's scheme, which does not provide for appointment to heirs on superannuation/retirement. It further held that extending "compassionate" appointment (or "varas hakka") to retiring employees' heirs, as opposed to the heirs of employees who die in harness leaving the family without support, defeats the very purpose of compassionate appointment and violates Article 14 (equality) by permanently shutting out more meritorious outside candidates. Both the Industrial Court's and the High Court's orders were quashed and set aside, and the appeals were allowed.

Lesson Learnt

Compassionate appointment is a narrow exception meant only to provide urgent relief to a family that loses its breadwinner unexpectedly. It cannot be stretched into a hereditary right to a government job upon an employee's ordinary retirement, since doing so would be arbitrary and unfair to other job-seekers.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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