NDLI: State of Himachal Pradesh & Anr Vs. Shashi Kumar

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	family pension and other terminal benefits Compassionate appointment deceased employee Service Law
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4 Referred Case 5 Referred Case 6 Referred Case 7 Referred Case 8
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Disposed Off
Headnote	Service Law – Compassionate appointment – The State, if entitled to take into account family pension and other terminal benefits in determining whether compassionate appointment should be granted to the dependant of a deceased employee – Held: The terms on which compassionate applications would be considered are subject to the policy which is framed by the State and must fulfill the terms of the policy – In instant case, policy was formulated on 18.01.1990, which was designed to meet the needs of those families where death of a government servant has left them in indigent circumstances, requiring immediate means of subsistence – Policy recognized that the benefits which were received by a family on account of welfare measures were required to be considered – The policy did not preclude the dependants of a deceased employee from being considered for compassionate appointment merely because they are in receipt of family pension – What the Policy mandated was that the receipt of family pension should be taken into account in considering whether the family has been left in indigent circumstances requiring immediate means of subsistence – The receipt of family pension is, therefore, one of the considerations which is to be taken into account.Service Law – Compassionate appointment – Prescription of income slab – On 18.01.1990, the State Government framed a policy/ scheme for making compassionate appointments – A income criteria/ income slab was prescribed by the Finance Department by a letter dated 29.09.2008 – High Court was of the view that it was not open to the Finance Department to amend the scheme – The State contended that income slab reduces the element of discretion and obviates a case by case analysis of what should or should not be an income criterion for deciding the indigent circumstances of a family – Held: The fixation of an income slab is a measure which diluted the element of arbitrariness – Fixation of an income slab subserves the purpose of bringing objectivity and uniformity in the process of decision making – Circulars issued by the Finance Department cannot be construed to be an amendment to the policy – Circulars are explanatory, since they are intended to guide the decision maker on the concept of indigency which is incorporated in the scheme – Thus, decision of the State Government to fix income limits confirmed – Further, the State directed to periodically revise the income limits at intervals of three years or earlier, and consider whether a revision is warranted having regard to the cost of living, inflation and other relevant facts and circumstances.Delay/Laches – Compassionate appointment – Held: In the instant case, the respondent waited for a period in excess of seven years to move a petition u/Art.226 of the Constitution – Supreme Court in Umesh Kumar Nagpal case has emphasized that the basis of a scheme of compassionate appointment lies in the need of providing immediate assistance to the family of the deceased employee – This sense of immediacy was evidently lost by the delay on the part of the dependant in seeking compassionate appointment – Thus, respondent debarred from seeking compassionate appointment by the delay as well as by the lapse of time.– Service Law. Constitution of India – Arts.14 and 16 – Compassionate appointment – Held: Compassionate appointment is an exception to the general rule that appointment to any public post in the service of the State has to be made on the basis of principles which accord with Arts.14 and 16 of the Constitution – Dependants of a deceased employee of the State are made eligible by virtue of the Policy on compassionate appointment.Father of the respondent, who was working in the Horticulture Department died in the year 2005 while he was in service. In 2007, the respondent submitted an application for compassionate appointment. The application was forwarded to the competent authorities. Additional Secretary (Horticulture) required that a certificate of income, including pension should be obtained from the concerned SDM by the appellant. In 2015, writ petition was filed by the respondent. The High Court held that the State is not entitled to take into account family pension and other terminal benefits in determining whether compassionate appointment should be granted to the dependant of a deceased employee. Hence, the present appeal.
Judge	Hon'ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud
Neutral Citation	2019 INSC 50
Petitioner	State Of Himachal Pradesh & Anr
Respondent	Shashi Kumar
SCR	[2019] 2 S.C.R. 432
Judgement Date	2019-01-16
Case Number	988

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

State of Himachal Pradesh & Anr Vs. Shashi Kumar

Please Log-in to view this content

Himachal Road Transport Corporation Vs. Sh. Dinesh Kumar

State of U.p. & Ors. Vs. Pankaj Kumar Vishnoi

Munish Kumar Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh and Another

State of Himachal Pradesh and Anr. Vs. Parkash Chand

R. D. Kaushal and Ors. Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Mgb Gramin Bank Vs. Chakrawarti Singh

Bhankra Byas Managing Board Vs. Suresh and Anr.

Sanjeev Kumar Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh

Balbir Kaur and Anr. Vs. Steel Authority of India Ltd. and Ors.

State of Himachal Pradesh & Anr Vs. Shashi Kumar

State of Himachal Pradesh & Anr Vs. Shashi Kumar

Please Log-in to view this content

Similar Documents

Himachal Road Transport Corporation Vs. Sh. Dinesh Kumar

State of U.p. & Ors. Vs. Pankaj Kumar Vishnoi

Munish Kumar Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh and Another

State of Himachal Pradesh and Anr. Vs. Parkash Chand

R. D. Kaushal and Ors. Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Mgb Gramin Bank Vs. Chakrawarti Singh

Bhankra Byas Managing Board Vs. Suresh and Anr.

Sanjeev Kumar Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh

Balbir Kaur and Anr. Vs. Steel Authority of India Ltd. and Ors.

State of Himachal Pradesh & Anr Vs. Shashi Kumar