CHENNAI: Compassionate grounds appointment is not a “prasad” offered to all who visit the temple, nor is it an act of charity, observed the Madras High Court while censuring BSNL for refusing a compassionate appointment for a deserving candidate. The death of a sole breadwinner will cause a huge imbalance in any family especially when the family is in the low-income group, the court added.
The two-member bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha passed the order on the plea moved by G Vijaya Prassana seeking employment under compassionate grounds after the death of his father in 2003 while he was working for BSNL.
The petitioner said that, despite the lapse of 10 years, since 2004, the application was kept pending by BSNL without any progress and only in 2014, the authorities sent a reply stating that the application must be made in new format. The petitioner moved the plea at the HC after the Central Administrative Tribunal rejected his submissions saying that the petitioner did not apply as per the procedures stated by BSNL.
Allowing the plea, the HC Bench observed, “The essence of the process of compassionate appointment is empathy but to the contrary, there has been only apathy in the case. The deceased was a telegraph man and his wife was VIII standard pass. The death of the sole breadwinner was a catastrophe for the family. It is true that compassionate appointment cannot be claimed as a matter of right.
At the same time, the respondent as the employer has taken shelter under this excuse.” The court quashing the CAT order directed BSNL to consider the compassionate appointment within three months.