Compassionate Appointment Arising Out Of Exceptional Circumstances Can’t Be Used As Ladder To Climb Up In Seniority: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court remarked that the compassionate appointment arising out of exceptional circumstances, cannot be used as a ladder to climb up in seniority by claiming a higher post merely on the basis that the person is eligible for such post.

The Court was hearing eight Civil Appeals arising out of a common Judgment of the Madras High Court passed in the Review Applications.

The two-Judge Bench comprising Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Manmohan observed, “Keeping in view the core objective behind appointment on compassionate basis, as has been discussed in a catena of judgments of this Court, it is well settled that compassionate appointment is a relief against immense financial hardship caused by the sudden and unforeseen loss of the earning member of a family. In such event, when a dependant family member of the deceased employee is provided appointment on compassionate basis, it is done in order to ensure that the family members are not subjected to impoverishment. Therefore, such appointment which is arising out of exceptional circumstances, cannot be used as a ladder to climb up in seniority by claiming a higher post merely on the basis that he/she is eligible for such post.”

The Bench reiterated that delay in filing of Writ Petition before the High Court is fatal for grant of relief to the party and this principle is more applicable in the cases of compassionate appointments.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta appeared for the Appellants, while Advocate M. Purushothaman appeared for the Respondents.

Court’s Observations

The Supreme Court in view of the facts and circumstances of the case, said, “The claim of the respondents/M. Jayabal & S. Veeramani also deserves to be rejected on the ground of delay and laches as has been noticed in the previous part of the judgment. Both the respondents had approached the Court belated after they had joined on the post they were offered appointment on compassionate basis. Reference for this purpose can be made to the judgment of this Court in State of Orissa v. Laxmi Narayan Das wherein it was held that delay reflects the indolence of a litigant and the Court must scrutinise whether such belated lis must be entertained or not.”

The Court added that an inordinate delay on behalf of any litigant to do an act required by law shall stand in his/her way for getting relief.

“The idea behind compassionate appointment is to take care of immediate financial crisis in the family of the deceased employee. In such case, the delay would mean that the family could survive even after death of the employee, as they may be having another source of income. In such circumstances, the party approaching the court with a significant delay can be denied the relief”, it noted.

The Court observed that it is not a matter of selection or choice of an applicant for such a post, rather for the employer to consider various factors and the basic idea is to provide succour to the family to enable them to come out of immediate financial crisis.

Conclusion

The Court further noted that delay in filing the application for compassionate appointment has also been held to be fatal for the exercise of such a right.

“If the facts of the case in hand are considered, in our view, belated applications made by the respondents seeking appointment on a higher post, after they had already been appointed on a lower post, was rightly rejected by the competent authority. The view expressed by learned Single Judge and the Division Bench of the High Court directing their appointment on a higher post w.e.f the date of judgement was certainly erroneous and contrary to the spirit of the law laid down by this Court on the subject”, it also said.

The Court, therefore, concluded that ignorance of law is not an excuse, as a result of which, such plea raised by the Respondents cannot be entertained and negative discrimination cannot be claimed if no right can be made out as per the settled position of law.

Accordingly, the Apex Court allowed the Appeals and set aside the impugned Judgment.

Cause Title- The Director of Town Panchayat & Ors. v. M. Jayabal & Anr. Etc. (Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 1423)

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