Compassionate
appointments
On the plea of a Supreme Court
directive, Govt. introduced a 5% ceiling on the compassionate
appointments. When the matter was taken up by the Staff Side in the
National Council the Government was unable to produce any such directive from
the Supreme Court.. Despite that the official side refused to withdraw the said
instructions limiting the appointments to 5% of the available vacancies.
In one of the National Council meetings, presided over by the Cabinet Secretary
solemn assurance was given to the Staff Side for the reconsideration of the
issue in the light of the discussion, but nothing happened till date. .
It is pertinent to mention in this connection that the compassionate
appointments in the Railways continue to be operated without any such ceiling.
In the Central Excise Department hundreds of applicants for compassionate appointment have been denied jobs. In other department many candidates approached the Court and obtained a
favourable order. Despite that various courts have struck down this
untenable stipulation, the Government has chosen to file SLP in the Supreme
Court. When the Central Administrative Tribunals were established, it was
with the intent of expeditious settlement of disputes on service matters.
Even recently the Government has announced that it would not be open for
various Ministries to appeal against the orders of the Tribunal as a matter of
course and efforts must be to explore the ways of acceptances of the judgments
of the Tribunal. In the light of this directive from the Prime Minister’s
office, the SLP ought to have been withdrawn. The standing Committee on
Department of Personnel in one of their report has termed the scheme of
Compassionate ground appointments as a sacred assurance to a fresh entrant that
if he dies in harness, his family shall not be left in lurch. Such an
assurance is being breached by the provisions of limiting such appointments to
5% of DR vacancies. This has to be done away with. Cengo India therefore
urges the Honourable Prime Minister that direction may be issued to do away with
the stipulation and compassionate appointments be given to all deserving
candidates.