Umesh Kumar Panchbharya v. The Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Limited
Compassionate appointment – denial after 22 years
Case brief
What is this about?
Compassionate appointment refused ~22 years after employee's death in harness (09.01.1993); mother's earlier rejection (order/letter dated 18.01.1994, Annexure P/1) unchallenged and final; object of compassionate appointment — immediate succour to bereaved family, not an alternative source of employment — no longer subsists as family sustained itself; writ petition dismissed on delay and merits, own costs; Chhattisgarh HC Bilaspur, WPS No. 5548 of 2016, Justice Sanjay K. Agrawal (single bench), 04.11.2024; petitioner Parag Kotecha; respondents Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Ltd. and officers; Annexures P/1, P/4, P/5.
What did the court decide?
Compassionate appointment is not an alternative source of employment; its only object and purpose is to provide immediate succour to the family of the deceased employee so that the family does not suffer the agony of starvation upon the sudden death of the sole bread earner.