Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Chameli Bag vs State Of West Bengal & Ors on 19 March, 2014
Author: Biswanath Somadder
Bench: Biswanath Somadder
18.3.2014.
ap W. P. 14457 (W) of 2013
Chameli Bag
Vs.
State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Biswarup Biswas
... For the petitioner.
Mr. Asim Kumar Ganguly
Mr. Bellal Shaikh
... For the State.
Let the report in the form of an affidavit filed in the Court today on behalf of
the concerned State respondent be taken on record.
Perusing the said report, it appears that for reasons stated therein, the proposal for compassionate appointment of the petitioner under the 'died-in-harness' category has been turned down by the concerned respondent authorities on the basis of the applicable guidelines.
In such circumstances, there is no scope for the writ Court to interfere in the matter. In any event, an applicant cannot claim appointment in a particular group/class of post as a matter of right. Appointment on compassionate ground too, cannot be claimed as a matter of right. There can be no quarrel with the settled legal proposition that a claim for appointment on compassionate ground is based on the premises that the applicant was dependent on the deceased employee. Strictly, such a claim cannot be upheld on the touchstone of Article 14 or 16 of the Constitution of India. However, such claim is considered as reasonable and permissible on the basis of sudden crisis occurring in the family of such employee who has served the State and dies while in service. As a rule, public appointments should be made strictly on the basis of open invitation of applications and merit. The appointment on compassionate ground is not another source of recruitment, but merely an exception to the aforesaid requirement, upon taking into consideration the fact of the death of the employee while in service leaving his family without any means of livelihood. In such cases, the object is to enable the family to get over sudden financial crisis and not to confer a status on the family (see Union of India & Anr. Vs. Shashank Goswami & Anr., reported in AIR 2012 SC 2294).
The aforesaid judgment of the Supreme Court has been relied on by this Court in at least two recent decisions which have been rendered in W. P. 20212 (W) of 2012 (Tamal Krishna Chakraborty vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors.) and in W. P. 17245 (W) of 2013 (Samim Ahmed vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors.) The writ petition, therefore, is liable to be dismissed and is accordingly dismissed.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the learned advocates for the parties.
(Biswanath Somadder, J.)