The Chhattisgarh High Court recently refused compassionate employment to the married daughter of a deceased employee, noting that she was no longer ‘dependent’ on her father’s salary. Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas pointed out that the petitioner-daughter was married before her father died, so she could not be claimed to be financially reliant on him.
The bench relied extensively on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in State of Maharashtra & Anr. v. Madhuri Maruti Vidhate, which found that a married daughter cannot be deemed to be reliant on her deceased mother and hence is ineligible for compassionate appointment. The Supreme Court also mentioned the delay in obtaining the redress. “She shall not be eligible for appointment on compassionate grounds after a period of several years after death”, it said
In the current instance, the High Court determined that the Petitioner had filed a claim for compassionate employment with a 13-year delay. It thus observed,
“The facts reflected from the record that the petitioner is married before death of her father, as such, she cannot be dependent on earning of her father and coupled with the fact that she has filed the present application for grant of compassionate appointment after 12 years of death of her father. These grounds clearly dis-entitle the petitioner to get compassionate appointment”
The Court explained that the entire purpose of providing compassionate appointment is to improve the family’s situation at the relevant period. If a family survives for such a long time (13 years), it has no legal claim to a compassionate appointment after several years have passed.
In the present case, the deceased’s married daughter Meena Sidar (Petitioner) made a representation before the Secretary, Energy and Power Department (Respondent 1) seeking a compassionate appointment, which was denied by the respondents on the grounds that such an application must be made within one year of the deceased person’s death. Respondent No. 1 denied the petitioner’s application because she was well past the statute of limitations.
CASE: Smt. Meena Sidar vs. State of Chhattisgarh & Ors.