Compassionate ground can’t be used to seek higher posts: HC

Compassionate ground can’t be used to seek higher posts: HC

Vasantha.Kumar@timesofindia.com  24.09.2026

Bengaluru: A compassionate appointment is a one-time measure arising from an exceptional circumstance and cannot be converted into a recurring claim for higher posts or better service benefits, the Dharwad bench of Karnataka high court ruled. 

A division bench of Justices M Nagaprasanna and Hema Kulkarni, in a judgement delivered on Sept 22, also cautioned state govt against allowing transposition from one Group C post to another merely because a compassionate appointee possesses higher educational qualifications. The court made the observations while allowing petitions filed by govt and reversing orders of Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) in two cases involving Sathish V Gulla and Sandeep Kumar V Kulkarni. 

Both men had been appointed under the compassionate appointment scheme to the post of second division assistant (SDA). KSAT had directed govt to consider their cases for appointment as first division assistants (FDAs), taking into account their higher educational qualifications. Govt challenged the orders, contending that compassionate appointment was not a form of direct recruitment in which qualifications and other eligibility criteria were assessed for appointment to a higher post. 

The high court agreed with govt’s position, holding that the purpose of compassionate appointment was to provide immediate financial assistance to a family suddenly deprived of its breadwinner. “Once that compassion has translated itself into public employment and the appointment has been accepted, the stream of compassion cannot be permitted to flow endlessly into claims for higher posts, better cadres or superior service benefits,” the bench observed. It said the purpose of the scheme was fulfilled once the eligible family member was appointed to the post contemplated under it. Possession of qualifications for a higher post, by itself, could not justify invoking compassion afresh for appointment to that post. 2

The bench also warned govt about making individual exceptions outside the governing scheme. Picking and choosing individuals for such benefits, it said, could disturb administrative discipline and lead to grievances of unequal treatment.

SC: Employment on compassionate ground no ladder for promotion

SC: Employment on compassionate ground no ladder for promotion

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesofindia.com 15.12.2025

New Delhi : In an important ruling, Supreme Court has said that a person employed on compassionate grounds to alleviate family difficulties because of death of a parent in harness cannot seek appointment to higher posts merely because they have the requisite qualifications for the same.

 A bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Manmohan on Friday reversed a Madras high court judgment directing Tami Nadu govt to promote two persons initially appointed as sweepers on compassionate grounds, due to death of their fathers, as Junior Assistants as they had the requisite qualifications for that post at the time of their appointment in 2007 and 2012. 

Both had approached HC in 2015. The bench said employment is provided on compassionate grounds to the eligible kin of an employee who dies in harness to enable the family of the deceased to tide over difficult times. “Such appointment which is arising out of exceptional circumstances cannot be used as a ladder to climb up in seniority by claiming a higher post merely on the basis that he/ she is eligible for such post,” it said. 

Writing the judgment, Justice Bindal said once the dependent of a deceased employee is offered employment on a compassionate basis, their right stands exercised. “Thereafter, no question arises for seeking appointment to a higher post. Otherwise, it would be a case of ‘endless compassion’,” he said. 

The bench said compassionate appointment is a relief against financial hardship caused by the sudden and unforeseen loss of the earning member of a family, and employment to the kin of the deceased is provided under such circumstances to ensure that the family members do not face impoverishment.

Candidate gets 101.66 out of 100 in job test, aspirants protest Indore : 17.12.2024

Candidate gets 101.66 out of 100 in job test, aspirants protest Indore : 17.12.2024

Job aspirants staged a protest in Indore on Monday raising questions over a candidate getting 101.66 marks out of total 100 due to the adoption of "normalisation process" in a Madhya Pradesh government recruitment. . . examination. 

The protesters alleged fraud in the recruitment examination and demanded a fair inquiry. Eyewitnesses said the agitating unemployed youth gathered in front of the district collector's office and handed over a memorandum addressed to chief minister Mohan Yadav to an officer. The memorandum said in the joint recruitment examination 2023 (Van and Jail Recruitment Test 2023) of Forest and Jail departments, a candidate scored 101.66 marks out of a total of 100 and topped the selection list. The result of this examination conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board, headquartered in Bhopal, was declared on December 13. 

After the announcement of the result, the board clarified the "process of normalisation" has been adopted in the recruitment examination as per rules. . , because of which candidates can get more than full marks (100) and less than zero. Normalization is a process for ensuring that students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the difficulty of papers they write. The process involves revising the score of a student in a way that it becomes comparable with the score of another. This becomes necessary when an examination in the same subject is held in multiple sessions, each with a different paper. A leader of the protesters, Gopal Prajapat, told reporters, "This is the first time in the state's history that a candidate has scored more than the total marks due to the normalization process adopted in the recruitment exam. We are protesting against the unfair process. . . of normalization and demanding a fair inquiry." PTI

Can’t change eligibility criteria after advertising vacancy: SC

Can’t change eligibility criteria after advertising vacancy: SC 

Figuring In Select List No Guarantee For Employment: 5-J Bench

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesofindia.com 08.11.2024

New Delhi : Giving a legal cloak to the age-old norm ‘rules of the game can’t be changed midway’, Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the eligibility criteria for govt jobs cannot be altered after advertising vacancies, and also said that transparency and nondiscrimination are inflexible features of public recruitment. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hrishikesh Roy, P S Narasimha, Pankaj Mithal and Manoj Misra said, “Eligibility criteria for being placed in the ‘select list’, notified at the commencement of the recruitment process, cannot be changed midway through the recruitment process unless the extant rules so per mit, or the advertisement, which is not contrary to the extant rules, so permit.”

Writing the judgment, Justice Misra said, “Even if such change is permissible under the extant rules or the advertisement, the change would have to meet the requirement of Article 14 of the Constitution and satisfy the test of non-arbitrariness.” The bench said the recruiting authorities must devise appropriate procedures for keeping the process of selection “transparent, non-discriminatory/ nonarbitrary” with focus on achieving the object of selecting the right candidate for the public employment. Referring to open-ended advertisements for recruitment, SC said it may give some discretion to the recruiting authority to adopt steps relevant to the process of recruitment and nature of employment, but none of such steps could be arbitrary or violative of the right to nondiscrimination guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution. 

However, it also said that even if a person finds his name in the list of selected candidates on completion of the recruitment process, he/ she does not get “an indefeasible right to  appointment”. However, the five-judge bench put in a caveat: “The State or its instrumentality cannot arbitrarily deny appointment to a selected candidate.” But it clarified that “the State or its instrumentality for bona fide reasons may choose not to fill up the vacancies.” It said if vacancies exist, a candidate in the zone of consideration of the select list cannot be arbitrarily denied appointment.

4,500 paramedical staff to be appointed

10/11/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,THANJAVUR

As many as 4,500 paramedical personnel would be appointed through Medical Services Recruitment Board by this monthend, Health Minister C.Vijayabaskar said here on Saturday.

“A total of 2,345 nurses, 1,234 village health nurses and 90 physiotherapists will be appointed,” he told the media after inaugurating a Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative (TAEI) centre and a clutch of other new facilities at Thanjavur Government Medical College Hospital.

Explaining the various facilities added to the hospital, Mr. Vijayabaskar said that apart from the TAEI centre, a modular operation theatre had been opened at Department of Orthopaedics under Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme at an estimate of ₹30 lakh.

Facilities

Five modular operation theatres at the multi-super speciality building of the hospital; a state-of-the-art central sterile services department; a 56-bedded high-end super speciality intensive care unit; a CATH lab; Biplanar Cath Lab; 128-slice CT scanner and a digital X-ray machine were also commissioned on Saturday.

The facilities have been established on a par with international standards and would benefit not only people of Thanjavur but neighbouring districts too, he said.

R. Doraikkannu, Minister for Agriculture; R.Vaithilingam, Rajya Sabha Member; A. Annadurai, Collector; and Kumudha Lingaraj, Dean, were present.