Sonali Nigam vs Union Of India & Others

Pratima K Gupta, Member (J)

I have joined the Single Bench online through video conferring.

Shri L.S. Kushwaha holding brief of Shri Ashutosh Sharma, learned counsel for the applicant and Shri Chakrapani Vatsyayan, learned counsel for the respondents are present.

By way of present original application, the applicant is seeking following reliefs:-

“(i) an order or direction be issued calling for the records and to set aside the impugned order dated 08.03.2022 issued by the respondent No. 2;

(ii) an order or direction be issued directing the respondents to grant compassionate appointment to the applicant within a period to be determined by the Hon’ble Tribunal;

(iii) to issue such other and further orders/direction as this Hon’ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case which the applicant is found entitled to and;

(iv) to award cost in favour of the applicant;

The brief facts leading to the original application are that the father of the applicant died on 25.02.2019. The applicant immediately applied for seeking compassionate appointment thereof and the same was considered by the committee constituted for considering cases for compassionate appointment and upon consideration, it was not considered feasible to appoint the applicant. The said decision was communicated to the applicant on 23.3.2021. The applicant once again applied for seeking compassionate appointment on 5.7.2021 and the same has been rejected videimpugned order dated 8.3.2022, which reads as under:-

“No.Letter No.:DMS/QSP/ADM/RP/11/F/AE-0712/COMPASSIONATE date: 08th March 2022.

Whereas LATE SH ARUN KUMAR NIGAM Ex-AO dying in harness on 25.02.2019 leaving behind the following members:-

SL.

Name of family members

Age & relationship with deceased

Marital status

Employment status

1

Smt. Meena Nigam

Wife, 51 yrs

Widow

Unemployed

2

Ms.Sonali Nigam

Daughter 26 ys

Unmarried

Unemployed

Whereas Ms. SONALI NIGAM D/O LATE ARUN KUMAR NIGAM, EX-AO applied for employment on compassionate grounds after demise of her father. The case for compassionate appointment was placed before the Compassionate Appointment Committee (herein after called CAC), DRDO HQ constituted for consideration the cases. All cases on the parameters laid down were scrutinized on the basis of MOD/D (Lab) guidelines by awarding merit points on the ‘100 points scale’ evaluated on the eight factors for assessing compassion and penury conditions in such cases viz. Family Pension, Terminal Benefits, Monthly income, Property, number of dependents, Number of unmarried daughter, number of minor children and Left over service. Finally, CAC considered the case of the applicant along with all other cases in the CAC meeting held on 23.12.2021 in light of existing instructions of the Govt. issued from time to time.

Whereas the examination of the cases by the CAC is also guided by the following DOP&T guidelines and judgments of the Hon’ble Supreme Court therein;-

a) The whole object of granting compassionate appointment is to enable the family to tide over the sudden crisis and to relieve the family of the deceased from financial destitution and help it to get over the emergency.

b) compassionate appointment cannot be granted after lapse of a reasonable period and it is not a vested right which can be exercised at any time in future.

c) All cases are to be considered only against limited number of vacancies i.e. 5% of the Direct Recruitment in Gp ‘C’ posts in a year.

d) She has secured 34 grade point.

Whereas after due examination and consideration in the CAC meeting held on 23.12.2021, the case of MS SONALI NIGAM could not be recommended by the Compassionate Appointment Committee (CAC) on the basis of inter-se-merit vis-à-vis limited number of vacancies available for the purpose.

Therefore, it is not found administratively feasible for offering an appointment to Ms Sonali Nigam on compassionate appointment. However, MS SONALI NIGAM has option to apply afresh along with all requisite documents/details of present compassion of the case at this office for consideration by CAC in the next annual meeting expected to the held in the end of September 2022.

(Dr. N. Eswara Prasad)

OS & SCIENTIST ‘H’

DIRECTOR

DMSRDE, KANPUR.

Ms. SONALI NIGAM

H/No.117K/140

Geeta Nagar

Kanpur 208025”.

Learned counsel for the respondents appears on advance notice and submits that the case of the applicant was duly considered by the committed constituted for considering cases for compassionate appointment. However, it was only unfortunate that she could not make the relative merit and accordingly the case of the applicant has been rightly considered and this OA is liable to be dismissed being devoid of merits.

Heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through the documents on record. The impugned order dated 8.3.3022 itself makes it clear that the case of the applicant shall be considered by the committee constituted for considering cases of compassionate appointments.

In view of the said statement made in the impugned order itself, this OA is disposed of with a direction to the competent authority amongst the respondents to place the case of the applicant before the committee constituted for considering cases of compassionate appointment, as and when it meets in future, the outcome of the same shall be communicated to the applicant within two months thereafter.