High Court ruling on compassionate employment

17.3.2016

HINDU

The Madras High Court Bench here has directed Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board to appoint on compassionate ground a person who was a minor at the time of his father’s death in harness in 2007 but still made an application for a job through his mother in order to comply with the condition of staking a claim for the benefit within three years of death.

Allowing a writ petition filed by M. Sugadev of Dindigul district, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana held that TWAD Board should not have “mechanically” rejected a second application made by the writ petitioner in 2014, after attaining majority, on the ground that compassionate employment could not be granted to a person below the age of 18 years as per a Government Order issued in 2010.

The judge quashed an order passed by the Managing Director of TWAD Board on June 15, 2015 rejecting the petitioner’s plea for compassionate employment and directed the official to consider the application within four weeks and “provide an appropriate appointment” because already eight years had passed since the demise of his father A. Muthusamy who served as an Assistant Executive Engineer.

She agreed with the petitioner’s counsel, R. Karunanithi, that the TWAD Board Managing Director ought not to have cited the petitioner’s age in 2007 as a reason for rejecting the second application made in 2014.

Stating that the petitioner was born in March 1993, the counsel said that the claimant was 15 years old at the time of his father’s death and 21 years old while making the second application.