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The Govt. of India & Anr. v. P. Venkatesh

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 302Decided 1 Mar 2019
Civil Appeal No. 2425 of 2019
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

The respondent's father, an employee of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, died in 1996. His family's requests for compassionate appointment were rejected multiple times over the years, and the respondent pursued the matter through three rounds of litigation before the Central Administrative Tribunal, which ultimately dismissed his claim in 2013 for being filed too late. The Madras High Court later overturned the Tribunal and directed the Government to appoint him on compassionate grounds, prompting this appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the Government's appeal and restored the Tribunal's dismissal of the claim. It held that compassionate appointment exists only to help a family survive the immediate financial crisis caused by a breadwinner's death, not to confer a job entitlement at any later point in time. Since the respondent first approached the Tribunal roughly eleven years after his father's death (and the High Court's order came nearly 21 years after the death), the claim had become stale and could not be revived merely because tribunals had repeatedly asked the Government to "reconsider" the representation over the years. The Court specifically criticized the practice of courts and tribunals issuing repeated "reconsider the representation" orders instead of deciding matters finally.

Lesson Learnt

A claim for compassionate appointment must be made promptly after the family crisis arises: courts will not entertain such claims after long delays, no matter how many times the matter was earlier sent back for "reconsideration."

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

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