‘Purpose of compassionate appointment is to provide succour to family of deceased’

Srinagar: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Wednesday directed the concerned drawing and disbursing authority in the Health Department to submit a certificate indicating Rs 10,000 is paid every month to the parents of a deceased chauffeur from the salary of a nursing orderly who was given the job following her husband’s death.

The court observed: “The purpose of compassionate appointment is to provide succour to the family of the deceased to avoid the hardships arising out of the sudden death of the bread earner.”

Issuing notice to the government for a response within six weeks on a petition by the nursing orderly who was appointed under SRO 43, a bench of Member (J), M S Latif, and Member (A), Prasant Kumar, held that the government order dated September 1, 2023, would remain stayed “provided the petitioner deposits a monthly amount of Rs 10,000 in the account of the parents of the deceased”.

The nursing orderly was appointed against the available post in district Pulwama on compassionate grounds under SRO 43 following the death of her husband in harness on December 23, 2016, who was working as a chauffeur in the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK).

She has come up with a plea before the tribunal assailing the order dated September 1, 2023, passed by the Deputy Director, Health Services, Kashmir whereby an amount of Rs 20,000 was deducted from her salary and credited to the account of the old parents of the of her deceased husband.

As per the order, further, the petitioner was living in her parental home without giving even a single penny out of her salary or from the family pension to the parents of the deceased.

The court observed that the word “compassion” needed no elaboration and it was for this reason that such type of appointment provided was termed as “compassionate”.

The court underscored that a son is brought up by the parents by giving all their love, affection, and earnings, saying, it was the duty of the son to look after his old and ailing parents.

“Parents do not bring up their children with this intention that when they grow old they will be looked after by their children, especially the son but, the social duty upon the children to look after their old aged parents cannot be ignored,” it said.

 “In our day-to-day life, we come across certain instances where old ailing parents are compelled to be fed in old age homes, the reason is either they are abandoned by their children or they are not conscious of their social duty,” the court said. “It is with this concept that certain legislations have been enacted, which need to be applied with all their rigour.”

Meanwhile, the tribunal asked DAG, Bikram Deep Singh to keep the entire record about the appointment of the petitioner available for the perusal of the court on the next date of hearing.

However, it was made clear that any observation made would not have any bearing on the main merits of the case.