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Bank of Baroda & Ors. vs. Baljit Singh

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 584Decided 21 Jun 2023
Civil Appeal No. 624 of 2017
B.V. Nagarathna · Manoj Misra

Background

Baljit Singh's father, a Bank of Baroda employee, died in service in 1999. His mother applied for his compassionate appointment as a Peon under the Bank's 1998 Scheme, but before the application was decided, Baljit completed his matriculation in 2004 and the Bank rejected the application in June 2004. Baljit sued for a declaration and mandatory injunction directing his appointment; the Trial Court ruled in his favour, the First Appellate Court reversed that, and the High Court in second appeal restored the Trial Court's decree in his favour, prompting the Bank's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court reiterated that compassionate appointment is not a vested right but a narrow exception to open recruitment, meant only to give immediate relief to a family left in genuine financial distress ("penury") by a breadwinner's death. Courts cannot direct such appointments outside the terms of the applicable scheme. Applying the Bank's own income-calculation formula in the 1998 Scheme to the actual figures (the family's net monthly income of Rs. 7,618, against the deceased's last-drawn emoluments of Rs. 3,210), the Court found the family's income exceeded the 60% threshold that would have made Baljit eligible, meaning he did not qualify under the Scheme's own financial-distress criterion regardless of his educational qualifications. The High Court had erred by resolving the legal questions based on precedent alone without applying this financial formula to the actual facts. The appeal was allowed, the High Court's judgment was set aside, and Baljit's suit was dismissed, with each side bearing its own costs.

Lesson Learnt

Compassionate appointment is a concession granted strictly per the terms of the employer's scheme to relieve genuine financial distress, not an entitlement flowing automatically from a parent's death in service. Courts will enforce the scheme's own eligibility formula (including income limits) rather than direct appointment merely because a dependent later becomes educationally qualified.

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

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