Appointment on compassionate ground is never considered a right of a person. In fact, such appointment is violative of rule of equality enshrined and guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution. As per settled law, when any appointment is to be made in Government or semi-Government or in public office, cases of all eligible candidates must be considered alike. That is the mandate of Article 14. Normally, therefore, State or its instrumentality making any appointment to public offices cannot ignore such mandate. At the same time, however, in certain circumstances, appointment on compassionate ground of dependents of deceased employee is considered inevitable so that the family of the deceased employee may not starve. The primary object of granting compassionate employment is to save the bereaved family from sudden financial crisis, occurring due to death of sole bread earner. It is thus an exception to the general rule of equality and not another independent and parallel source of employment.
If disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against an employee and the charges leveled against such employee are proved and he is punished, it is indeed a relevant consideration for not extending the benefit to dependent of such employee on the ground that he was punished. To us, it cannot be said that it is a case of double jeopardy or a dual punishment. Compassionate appointment is really a concession in favour of dependents of deceased employee. If during his carrier, he had committed illegalities and the misconduct is proved and he is punished, obviously his dependents cannot claim right to the employment………… General Manager, State Bank of India & Ors. Versus Anju Jain.
Past conduct of an employee is undoubtedly an important consideration for compassionate appointment.
It is true that the prime object is to provide succor and immediate relief, yet the deceased’s service record or the factum of disciplinary proceedings and punishment meted out to employee, cannot be said to be an irrelevant factor for the consideration of compassionate appointment.