Bengaluru: Compassionate appointment is a one-time measure born out of an exceptional circumstance and it cannot be converted into a recurring charter of benefits, the Karnataka High Court has said in a judgement. A…

Bengaluru: Compassionate appointment is a one-time measure born out of an exceptional circumstance and it cannot be converted into a recurring charter of benefits, the Karnataka High Court has said in a judgement. A division bench comprising Justices M Nagaprasanna and Hema Kulkarni said this while reversing the decision of the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) directing the state government to consider transposing two compassionate appointments to First Division Assistants (FDA) from Second Division Assistants, owing to their qualifications.Supreme Court stays Madras High Court order against compassionate jobs for Karur stampede victimsThe state government had challenged the KSAT decision in the appointments of Sathish V Gulla and Sandeep Kumar V Kulkarni. In 2017, they were appointed after the breadwinners of the respective families died in harness. The scheme/circular governing compassionate appointments contemplated appointment of an eligible dependent to a Group-C post. Hence, the two were appointed as SDA, Group-C posts. After around six years in the service, both approached the KSAT.The division bench cited Apex Court judgments on the issue wherein the top court held that once the right to compassionate appointment is exercised and the benefit is availed, the appointee cannot thereafter seek a higher post merely on the strength of possessing a higher qualification, observing that “there is, in law, no concept of endless compassion.”“Qualification may confer eligibility; it does not, by itself, create an entitlement to a particular post under a scheme of compassionate appointment. “The tenor of the Scheme is appointment to a Group-C post and not appointment to the highest Group-C post commensurate with the educational qualification possessed by the dependant. To read such a right into the Scheme would be to rewrite it,” the bench said.Caution to stateThe bench further cautioned the state that compassion must operate within the boundaries drawn by law; otherwise, what begins as benevolence may end in arbitrariness and administrative chaos. The court asked the state to tread carefully while dealing with requests for transposition from one post to another within Group-C merely on the strength of higher educational qualifications possessed by compassionate appointees.“Picking and choosing individuals for such largesse, dehors the Scheme, would not merely disturb administrative discipline, but may also generate legitimate grievances of unequal treatment under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Administrative aberrations, if repeated, have an uncanny tendency to masquerade as precedents and thereafter multiply into litigation. The State would, therefore, do well to ensure uniform adherence to the governing Scheme and desist from repeating such departures,” the bench said.

Source: Deccan Herald