Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Subhajit Mitra vs State Of West Bengal & Others on 17 February, 2014
Author: Nishita Mhatre
Bench: Nishita Mhatre
1
06 17.02.14
rpan Ct. No.17 W.P.S.T. No. 158 of 2010
In Re: An application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India filed on 24th March, 2010.
AND
In the matter of: Subhajit Mitra
Petitioner
Vs.
State of West Bengal & Others
Respondents
Mr. Swapan Kumar Nandi ... for the Petitioner Mr. Joytosh Majumder Ms. Debjani Ray ...for the State The Petitioner is the son of the deceased Rathindra Nath Mitra, who was working with the State Government. Rathindra Nath expired on 18th June, 2001 while he was employed as an Officer in the District Employment Exchange, Kalna. An application was submitted by the Petitioner's mother in July, 2001 for compassionate appointment of the Petitioner to the State Government. There is no dispute that the Petitioner was a major at that point of time. The Petitioner was directed to submit the application in the prescribed form. Accordingly, the application was submitted on 17th March, 2004.
An enquiry committee was constituted to consider whether the Petitioner and his family were in penury and, therefore, required the assistance of the employment on compassionate grounds. The committee submitted its report on 11th November, 2005.
It appears that the application for appointment was initially rejected and, therefore, the Petitioner approached the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal by preferring Original Application No.2376 of 2006. The Tribunal directed the State to treat his petition before the Tribunal as a representation for compassionate appointment and to dispose of the same within 2 a period of three weeks of the receipt of the order. Accordingly, an order was passed on 13th October, 2006 indicating that the Officer concerned i.e., the Director of Employment, West Bengal had no power to decide the issue of compassionate appointment and the papers were transmitted to Respondent No.2.
Aggrieved by the speaking order, passed by the Director of Employment, West Bengal, the Petitioner again approached the Tribunal by preferring OA - 4455 of 2006. The Tribunal dismissed the application by observing that the Petitioner was not entitled to compassionate appointment in view of the income available to the family after the death of the employee.
We have considered the statement indicating the amount which the Petitioner and his family received after the death of his father. Even if the amount of General Provident Fund (which is the employee's saving) is deducted from the total of `8,16,041 received by the family on the death of the employee, the family could not be considered to be in penury. The Family Pension received is about `6898/- in 2005. The Death Gratuity received is of `2,50,000/-, Group Insurance of `14,925/-, Encashment of Leave of `1,30,380/- and the General Provident Fund of `4,20,736/-. Thus a total of `8,16,041 was received. Apart from this, the family had investments totaling to `5,86,729.05/- from which interest was payable to them. The family also had a residential house on land admeasuring three kottah in the name of Rathindra Nath. 3
In our opinion, the very fact that there are huge investments accruing interest and the family pension payment in 2005 which was `6898/-, which must have risen substantially today, and the family owned land, would indicate that it could not be said that the family faced financial stringency. It is well-settled that compassionate appointment can be granted only when the family leads a life in penury and is in financial doldrums, thus unable to make two ends meet. In the present case, there are only three members in the family and the aforesaid income, in our opinion, would not warrant the appointment of the Petitioner on compassionate grounds. In fact the enquiry committee had found that the Petitioner's financial condition was "not unsound".
The Tribunal has, therefore, rightly rejected the application of the Petitioner.
The writ petition is rejected.
There shall be no order as to costs.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties as expeditiously as possible on compliance of all necessary formalities.
(Nishita Mhatre, J.) (Tapash Mookherjee, J.)